Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to find it utterly astounding that it's socially acceptable in England for pet cats to poop in other people's gardens??!

999 replies

DrawsSword · 07/11/2021 11:49

I honestly cannot get my head round this. We've moved into a new house and the garden is full of cat shit. Not a single cat owner I know has a little tray for their cat to use. Where do cat owners think their cats poop? Do you honestly not care that it's in other peoples gardens?
My dh is from in a country where this is not socially acceptable and cat owners have litter trays and the cats bloody use them.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
Arrowheart · 08/11/2021 14:05

Cats gonna cat OP that's what makes them great. Better still cats give zero fucks about humans so there we are.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 08/11/2021 14:05

@JaniieJones

So, irresponsible and hapless cat owners how would you feel if my dog popped into your garden and had a wander about then did a shit on your plants? I mean they're animals it's what they do!!! waaaaaah!!

'blame TV makeover shows. Gardens are not extensions of your home. They are colonised outdoor areas. You can control their environment only to a limited extent. Accepting that wild animals will roam through them (and shit in them) is as necessary as accepting that you can't control the weather in the garden either. Anyone expecting a sterile garden environment is foolish'

Bollocks. Our garden is indeed an extension of our home, it is our property y'see. Manky cats aren't welcome, they should be at home with their owners. I do accept wild animals will roam and shit in our garden, I don't accept others people's pets will.

Do you need me to say it slowly..... Dogs and cats are different... They are not the same even by law..

You literally have to accept it or cat proof your own garden. Nothing is going to change

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 08/11/2021 14:06

@FortunesFavour

Again Janiie, it’s not a question of whether you accept it or not. It’s the law so you have to.
Round and round we go 🤣 like if they say it enough things will change
nanbread · 08/11/2021 14:11

@Arrowheart

Cats gonna cat OP that's what makes them great. Better still cats give zero fucks about humans so there we are.
"Cats gonna cat" omg I just did a sick in my mouth, who SAYS shit like this in real life?!
FortunesFavour · 08/11/2021 14:13

“OMG I just did a sick in my mouth”, who SAYS shit like this in real life?!

😂

SueSaid · 08/11/2021 14:14

'All those people who don’t care about their cats shitting in their neighbours gardens… would you be ok with your neighbour’s dog shitting in your garden?'

That's different y'see, no particular reason but it has been decreed so by mn cat owners Grin.

treguffin · 08/11/2021 14:15

@LaBellina

LaBellina Yes I agree with you. We keep our DCat indoors as we don’t want others to have to deal with our pets waste as one of the reasons. Poor cat, which would prefer to be outdoors.

Safe cat, away from the busy road next to our home. Sod off with your judgement about my pet if you have ZERO knowledge about how we live.

To be fair, you did say one of the reasons you keep your pet in was so that others aren't inconvenienced by its poo. Which seems a really ridiculous reason to keep a cat in. If you have other, more pressing reasons, then you aren't really keeping it in especially to do your neighbours a favour then, are you?
AngeloMysterioso · 08/11/2021 14:15

Do you need me to say it slowly..... Dogs and cats are different...

How though? Legalities aside, what is it about your cat’s shit that makes it more acceptable than your neighbours dog shit? Why is it ok for your cat to shit in your neighbours garden but not ok for their dog to shit in your garden?

nanbread · 08/11/2021 14:15

Can't believe someone on this thread called people who didn't want cat shit all over their garden "joyless" Grin

Yeah, what's wrong with you all, you should be fucking delighted about kitty turds decorating your borders

treguffin · 08/11/2021 14:16

This is a bit of a mad thread as there is literally nothing you can do about cats shitting in your garden apart from get secretly apoplectic about it

Arrowheart · 08/11/2021 14:17

I'm taking the piss. In reply to the person who said 'I just did a sick in my mouth' 😂😂😂😂

treguffin · 08/11/2021 14:18

@AngeloMysterioso

Do you need me to say it slowly..... Dogs and cats are different...

How though? Legalities aside, what is it about your cat’s shit that makes it more acceptable than your neighbours dog shit? Why is it ok for your cat to shit in your neighbours garden but not ok for their dog to shit in your garden?

because dogs shouldn't - legally - be wandering about without control of an owner. So a dog free to roam and come and shit in your garden would be a stray. A dog with its owner that walked past and shat in your front garden - well the owner would hopefully pick that up. Cats don't tend to wander around with their owners. So its completely different, of course.
Resilience · 08/11/2021 14:19

Our garden is indeed an extension of our home, it is our property y'see.

In your eyes yes, in the eyes of the law (and animal behaviour), no. Land is treated very differently in law to physical structures with rooves.

paloma2 · 08/11/2021 14:20

Thank god for posters like Resilience. There is still some sanity in this world!

treguffin · 08/11/2021 14:20

Anyway, shitting in the garden is nothing. We used to have a neighbour who's cat would come into our house through an open window and piss on our furniture.

SueSaid · 08/11/2021 14:22

'This is a bit of a mad thread as there is literally nothing you can do about cats shitting in your garden apart from get secretly apoplectic about it'

There is a lot we can't do about many things, doesn't stop us all complaining on mn does it. It's just baffling that gormless owners think its all ok as its a wild animal no no hang on its their pet, they can't quite decide.

I'd just feel a bit guilty tbh if my pet was being a right nuisance and other people hated the sight of it.

Lesserspottedmama · 08/11/2021 14:24

The problem is that practically everyone feels the need to own a cat or a dog - if not several of both. The situation is massively out of hand and there will have to be licenses/restrictions at some point. Our garden is full of cat poo. Every walk we go on is liberally sprinkled with dog poo. DH and I were talking about why everyone has to have at least one animal now and I think it’s partially that people have less hobbies, clubs, community etc than they used to so they wanted other things to fill their time and being meaning to their life. Also people are having less children, for various reasons, so they want some thorn else to love. More people begin again in a new relationship now when they are past childbearing age so they want to cement their new relationship with a pet that they are ‘raising’ together and feel more like a family. It’s become a odd pre-having children stage that young couples seem to go through for some reason - not ready for kids so get a pet. Also there are just more people in the U.K. these days so therefore more pets. More unhappy people looking for something to make them happy. And much much more people with pets who don’t have land but live one a street. Years ago people with animals mostly had land and space. I think a cat or dog is lovely for old people who need the company and purpose. I think if people who live out of the way of others and have the space for animal to roam on the their own land then fair enough. But most people with a dog or cat.. I roll my eyes and judge just a little and then go back to shovelling cat poo from my garden and dodging the prolific dog poo that lines every footpath.

treguffin · 08/11/2021 14:25

@JaniieJones

'This is a bit of a mad thread as there is literally nothing you can do about cats shitting in your garden apart from get secretly apoplectic about it'

There is a lot we can't do about many things, doesn't stop us all complaining on mn does it. It's just baffling that gormless owners think its all ok as its a wild animal no no hang on its their pet, they can't quite decide.

I'd just feel a bit guilty tbh if my pet was being a right nuisance and other people hated the sight of it.

Even if there was nothing you could do about it? I wouldn't give it a second thought. I mean you'd literally do nothing in life if you spent all your time worrying what the neighbours thought of you.
SueSaid · 08/11/2021 14:27

'mean you'd literally do nothing in life if you spent all your time worrying what the neighbours thought of you.'

Really? Its just common courtesy to consider your neighbours, the most basic thing. Jesus. I cannot believe the entitled crap on this thread.

Lady08 · 08/11/2021 14:27

@Lesserspottedmama

The problem is that practically everyone feels the need to own a cat or a dog - if not several of both. The situation is massively out of hand and there will have to be licenses/restrictions at some point. Our garden is full of cat poo. Every walk we go on is liberally sprinkled with dog poo. DH and I were talking about why everyone has to have at least one animal now and I think it’s partially that people have less hobbies, clubs, community etc than they used to so they wanted other things to fill their time and being meaning to their life. Also people are having less children, for various reasons, so they want some thorn else to love. More people begin again in a new relationship now when they are past childbearing age so they want to cement their new relationship with a pet that they are ‘raising’ together and feel more like a family. It’s become a odd pre-having children stage that young couples seem to go through for some reason - not ready for kids so get a pet. Also there are just more people in the U.K. these days so therefore more pets. More unhappy people looking for something to make them happy. And much much more people with pets who don’t have land but live one a street. Years ago people with animals mostly had land and space. I think a cat or dog is lovely for old people who need the company and purpose. I think if people who live out of the way of others and have the space for animal to roam on the their own land then fair enough. But most people with a dog or cat.. I roll my eyes and judge just a little and then go back to shovelling cat poo from my garden and dodging the prolific dog poo that lines every footpath.
What do you think should happen to all of the cats and dogs that people own because they would be feral if not owned and they would be breeding to the point the country would be massively over run with strays, like many foreign countries. Then we’d end up with much larger quantities of poo in our gardens and wrecking havoc everywhere.
Dreamstate · 08/11/2021 14:31

I know for fact my neighbours cat crops in mine I just sling it over the fence back into their garden. I've seen it come over and do it whilst I'm in my lounge watching TV so there is no mistake whose cat it was.

They wanted a cat they can deal with it

Lady08 · 08/11/2021 14:32

@JaniieJones

'This is a bit of a mad thread as there is literally nothing you can do about cats shitting in your garden apart from get secretly apoplectic about it'

There is a lot we can't do about many things, doesn't stop us all complaining on mn does it. It's just baffling that gormless owners think its all ok as its a wild animal no no hang on its their pet, they can't quite decide.

I'd just feel a bit guilty tbh if my pet was being a right nuisance and other people hated the sight of it.

So what will happen if we let them all run wild and feral and don’t keep them as pets. There would be more shit, as more animals and no owners to spay/neuter them. They’d wreck havoc on the wildlife to a huge scale because they’d have no one to feed them and have to rely on prey to eat. You would have far more shit in your garden, than you would otherwise.
penguinssmell · 08/11/2021 14:33

We have a dog, he generally good with cats but luckily they don't Leno that and I have to let him out if I see one on my wall. He doesn't do anything but they run off.

Cat poo is particularly stinky. I don't have a cat but the cat toilets indoors are mega grim too. I think maybe not more pets and I can include dogs with that.

penguinssmell · 08/11/2021 14:34

Last bit got confused. Maybe pet dogs and cats shouldn't be allowed.

Arrowheart · 08/11/2021 14:35

@LemonSwan

I am just going to leave this here...
Brilliant!