That cat-proofing should become a legal requirement?

[QueenCamilla]

As of June 2024 all pet cats will have to be microchipped by law or risk owners a £500 fine. It's a good start in the right direction, as it would allow the fed-up neighbours to identify the breeders of cat colonies and feeders of the feral populations. If chip-less I'd hope to be assumed owner-less and removed from living on the local streets.

I live in a run of back-to-back garden Victorian terraces and the problems with owned but roaming, feral and also intact cats of all sorts, are driving me mad.
I don't encounter as many dog shits in the streets as I do cat feces in my own garden (and that's just the paths and the patio).
I have spent near on £100 on deterrents. I'll spend another £100 in the summer on motion sprinklers. I'm building a new fence between the worst offending neighbour (who feeds all the neighbourhood cats in his garden and draws dozens of them to visit) at my expense, solely because of the problem with pests and their fouling. I bet the neighbour will try to put a ramp or something against the fence to enable "his" cats to roam.

Meanwhile, I can't take the bins out without clearing the turds and washing the paths first. I can't have builders round, without being out there at the crack of dawn looking for cat poos, so they don't get trod in (again).
I can't open a window downstairs or patio doors without smell of feces wafting in.
No garden or drainage improvements can be done without considering the cat problem first. I dig a trench for pipes and they shit in it. Gravel? That's just a giant litter box. I collect bramble branches to scatter them into flower beds and still a cat curled one out right next to the spikes. I have laid an ugly plastic grid as a walk-way over my lawn as it's impossible to not step into one otherwise.

I'm appalled that someone else's choice of pet is allowed to have such a detrimental effect on my finances and my enjoyment of my property.
Some cat owners dare to call these threads "boring". I'd rather call them a warning! I am growing increasingly angry at the situation and it won't be boring at all if I snap.

Would I be unreasonable to think that with the microchip requirement coming in, it would be a good time to force cat owners to spend money on their own pets and cat-proof their gardens?

I'm sure I could deal with an odd escapee (scan and return), but I'm losing the patience with the situation as it stands.

It doesn't look like cat poo, and cat's don't usually shit on hard ground like that unless they are locked in somewhere. They will choose to go on soil, in the park/ woods/garden usually. I don't understand what's going on in your area? Is there genuinely a few people who hoard cats that uncontrollably breed? Can you find out which houses and try and speak to RSPCA? If there is a derelict site where cats have taken to living? Again, call the RSPCA.
I've never heard of this much chaos/ trouble caused by cats, even in SE Asian cities where the feral cat population is out of control!
A cat is property in name only. It lives in your house and has free will to go where it likes. I'm happy with that situation. You can't control a cat, you can't train it not to do it's normal behaviours. I love cats as they control the mice and rat population personally.

Another vote for that fox poo. Wrong colour for a start for cat poo on that scale. Foxes can scale incredibly high walls and fences. Sorry op yavvvbu.

Completely agree OP!

I have one cat and he doesn't go outside of my own garden. Quite useful because he keeps neighbourhood cats away but he is also too timid to attack birds.

I would be mortified if my pet was pissing and shitting in someone else's garden.

Foxes definitely climb walls, I have seen them walking on the top and caught one in a neighbours tiny, walled in garden once.
I have cats, I would never be in favour of cat proofing my garden as my cats quality of life would fall. My neighbours all have cats anyway, that also roam.
My cat, however, catches a large amount of mice and rats so he probably has some use for the wider community? Literally every day during spring and summer. As for poo - saw poo on my lawn just yesterday, I know it was fox poo. Hedgehog poo also quite common. Behind the house I have seen deer, foxes and a badger, all of which must poo somewhere. And I don’t live rurally, I live in a city. My son once fell in fox poo on the school field.

Thunderpunt · Today 15:17

Cats on the other hand should stay in their own bloody gardens!

Go on, you tell them!!

That looks and sounds pretty extreme!

If it’s indeed cat poo, could it be that your neighbour is feeding them something so shite it gives the cats stomach issues? Would explain the extraordinary amount, smell and weird looking poo.

Maybe you can report it in terms of animal welfare? That you’re afraid about their health? The colony having a disease? Could reduce the potential fallout with neighbour.

Those really don’t look like cat poo, and cats usually bury what they’ve done. I understand your frustration with the situation but could it be partly misdirected? I have cats and we live rurally. I do agree that a very built up area where there are no, or tiny gardens, is less suitable for cats to roam.

Yes, I'm probably hoping against hope for a reasonable solution in law.
The dog poo laws only happened because councils had to fork out and deal with it.

Yep, I'm cat-proofing my garden at a great expense. It's a shame I have to bear the financial consequences of other people's want of having roaming pets. I also have to be prepared for unnecessary conflict. I know that my neighbour will be an arse about my new high fence. He sees himself as a do-gooder and I'll become the Very Truly Bad person the moment I stop the free cat run across my garden. The other side of him already have the fence and even barbed wire. He'll be pretty much trapped with his cats when my fence goes up and he won't be happy about it. As ironic as that is!!

That's a myth.

Our neighbour has a cat that regularly shits in our front garden - it's a small grass patch. It doesn't bother to bury to shit. I've caught it numerous times, so stop making false claims.

Seriously though if next doors' cats are feral and he is just feeding them then surely he wouldn't claim ownership anyway? So what you really want is some Officer Dibble type capturing cats and killing them if they don't find a chip.
Yeah, because local authorities have loads of spare cash and I can't see anyone complaining.

I know you so badly want this to be cat shit to be able to prove your point OP, but in my experience cats bury their shit, I’ve never seen cat shit just scattered around like you have shown. I think it might be from a different animal.

Are they his pets though OP? You said they are feral cats?

I agree that not all cats always cover their poo. But that isn't cat poo.

Not all cats bury their poo. I am looking in particular at one offender, currently curled up on my lap, who went outside earlier, shat in the middle of the patio, then came back in! She is lucky I love her 😂

Yeah, pretty much that could work.
Some of the cats here have very unpleasant lives and it would be more humane to pts. I've seen a couple with bad eyes. And there was a lovely, fluffy tortoiseshell girl, who just got progressively skinnier, skinnier, then bedraggled and now haven't been seen for 6 months. I doubt that was a pleasant end.

And I don't think it's needed across the board, but there should be something in the law for growing problem situations like mine.

have had cats for last 40 plus years, all indoor cats, several at a time, so have had the delight of cleaning thousands upon thousands of litter trays, never have I seen a poo that colour - most weird, maybe it's just one unwell cat that is the culprit - either way I wouldn't want it in my garden whoever it belongs to..

You've watched cats get increasingly ill over months and done nothing, OP? Not even tried the RSPCA? Or did I miss a post?

That’s fox poo.
As someone who gets not just cats but foxes, rabbits and badgers in my garden, I feel your pain - but if you don’t want them coming in the onus is on you to protect your property.
But cats aren’t nearly as determined or destructive as foxes. They can get anywhere and everywhere they want. And they will poo in plain sight. Foxes are “performative pooers”

Yes it is cat shit.

We don't get foxes in our back gardens. Foxes in my city are generally very rarely to be seen (which wasn't the case where I lived before). But there are dozens upon dozens of cats in the vicinity of my garden.
I also have motion cameras. One fox was captured at the front of my house before I had the gates. None round the back. The cats however... A constant stream of cats. Including when I'm out there gardening and DIYing.

I could do with a fox. They're not fond of cats apparently.

An odd neighbour of mine once threatened to put poison down to kill my cat because she was convinced he was tearing up some of her outdoor furniture (no idea why she was so convinced it was my cat when our street had loads of them). Your "warning" comment in your post reminds me of her attitude. It's nasty, and you need to get some sense of perspective.

Look at ways YOU can cat proof your garden (plants cats don't like, higher fences etc.) if it's causing you such distress. Animals, domestic and wild, are a fact of life in neighbourhoods in this country and getting wound up about it is not going to make a difference and only make life worse for you.

OP your issue is with your neighbour and the cats in his "care". They are obviously unwell and stressed. He needs to be reported as it is an environmental health and cat welfare issue. Most well looked after domestic cats do not act nor poo like that.

P.s. Don't ever visit Italy or Greece or Turkey if you don't like feral cats 😁

That’s definitely fox poo, not cat poo!

And no cats don’t always bury it - I had a local cat who used to delight in taking massive dumps on my path.
But that isn’t cat poo in the photos OP.
I have fox poo in my garden currently that looks identical.

If it's YOUR pet causing issues, then YOU need to adress the issues.

YOUR pet choice should not be a fact of life for me unlike birds or foxes

Well yeah of course, but when it's general agitation at an animal population in a neighbourhood, stewing and stressing over it like OP isn't going to help. Same with my situation. There was no evidence it was my cat (we did ask), she just had an incredibly hostile attitude towards him because she'd decided it was him. Threatening to put poison out! When you've got to that stage, yeah, you do need to start taking measures to keep animals at bay.