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.

Never seen cat poo like this before and I have 3 cats. They’d never go on cement either they like to bury their poo. Not sure what animal that is doesn’t look like fox poo either.

Yes. I did nothing. Just started to despise the alleged do-gooders.

I read on my local Facebook group about someone bringing a poorly feral in and ending up charged for worming, vaccines, basic meds and the cat was then brought back to their garden with a leaflet on how to care for ferals in the winter. Fair enough if someone wishes to do so. I really, really don't.
Now, with the microchip laws coming in, I will report feral and/or poorly cats, in the hope that the owners can be forced to look after their animals.
I'll also report the ones that my neighbour feeds in his shed. See how he likes a fine for not chipping them.

Stressed, unneutered, ill and territorial Tom cats do it.

Not round here they don't. They crap on the roads, footpaths and verges as well as lawns. They don't bury it any more. I thought mother cats trained the kittens but no longer, it seems. Every morning I see one of two squatting and strolling away. A friend in Australia no longer has this filthy problem.

I love cats, only ever had indoor cats though. We often have random cats shitting in our garden, never bury it.
My dad used to chase cats out his garden & squirt them with water as he was fed up with the pooing, there was one big tom cat in particular who wld just stare at him. He then found that a cat had shat right on his car bonnet, was def the tomcat getting revenge.

We have a lot of cats in our neighbourhood it most of the poos are from Foxes. We witness them doing it. One even dug up our newly laid grass! Little shits! Are you sure that these aren’t foxes? Cats usually bury their poo or poo on soil.

From online sources to help bury some urban myths:

Covering poop is a normal cat behavior, right? Not necessarily. Wild cats that bury their excrement do so for basically two reasons: one is to keep their presence unknown from possible predators. The other is to show that they are not challenging more dominant cats. These more dominant cats rarely bury feces, and often leave waste on grassy tussocks that elevate and make it even more prominent.

In fact, one study followed female pet cats out and about, and observed them poop 58 times—and only twice did the cats try to dig a hole first, or cover it afterward. Roaming kitties may use unburied waste as another form of marking.

Oh just read your comment about the foxes. Sorry, ignore me. You’re not wrong, it’s unpleasant to have animal poo in the garden.

Yes. I did nothing. Just started to despise the alleged do-gooders.

There is not the remotest chance that you will ever be paying a penny towards these cats' welfare. But you read something on Facebook about a situation that you would never put yourself in, and used that to justify your ongoing ignoring of cruelty. Despite the wider situation impacting you negatively.

You really do sound very unpleasant.

Fox poo is much darker.

Why the determination to prove OP wrong? It's cat shit that's been rained on for a day or two. I know because this is what it looks like when I have to scrape it off the driveway. Plenty of them are happy to shit on hard surfaces and it looks and smells nothing like fox shit.

Its such a pale poo it looks like whatever animal is doing it has a serious problem with their organs!
Given its consistent colour it seems like one animal is doing these poos? I have a giant 6 kilo cat and even he doesn't do such large poos!
Sorry if I have missed it but have you seen cats doing these poos?
Our cat poos in our garden (preferably to me than cleaning the kitty litter) he doesn't poo anywhere else (confirmed by neighbours) I feel very sorry for you because I am happy to clean up my cats poos but would be livid if other cats were pooing too.

Cats absolutely do poo on concrete like that. My neighbour's fat Tom cat will look right at me as he shits on my driveway. He'll do it on the pavement too. Vile.

I agree with you, OP. The poo's horrible, and many cat owner's attitude to letting their animals kill wild birds etc is completely irresponsible - if they personally killed a wild bird they'd be breaking the law, but they are happy to kill them by proxy!
Those blobs look like the cat poo that my son gets in his garden. He doesn't have any pets and suffers from neighbour's cats too. Luckily I live rurally - there are few cats nearby, but we do have foxes. Their poo is dark brown or black hereabouts, but I understand that urban foxes droppings are usually lighter. They don't smell particularly strongly either - maybe it's due to a different diet, like the colour? Badger poo, however - yuck! Really whiffy.

Clearly this has quite an impact on OP and if I was her I would feel the same. I really like cats but the woman just wants to enjoy her garden for goodness sake. I don’t have a problem with cat poo here, but where I live is littered with dog shit so I understand her fustration. There was one in the front garden path the other day and we have a wall the the bottom it. It’s inconsiderate and gross. And the trouble with cats is once they’re let out the owner has no control over where they roam and shit.

And here I am, as the unpleasant one (surprise, surprise!).
That's why I want the law changed - to give the pet cats an owner in the law (compulsory chipping is a step forward) so they can't wash their hands off the animal once it starts suffering ill health.
I'd love to see compulsorily insurance too.
Containing the cats to the owners property would deal with other issues such as spread of diseases, fouling and territorial stress/fights.

I can't be a one-woman clean up operation of feral cats (I already have a job) when nothing in the law stops my neighbour getting another three on his property to every one I take away. It's like a beast from fairy tales where every lost head grows nine new ones in it's place.

I hope your own pet cats don't suffer and don't cause misery to their neighbours. And if so then you're a good owner and human, even if somewhat oblivious as to how bad the situation can get.

It sounds as if the neighbour is the problem, bringing far too many cats into a built-up area. I'd probably report to a local cat welfare charity - Cats protection league or similar - who might be able to persuade him to stop and/or take some away for re-homing?

No one is suggesting you personally act to help these cats, but you haven't even notified the RSPCA. That is indefensible.

I'd also point out that some of us have the sort of gardens which can't be cat-proofed to keep cats in. I live on a terrace where there's a communal path which runs between our houses and our gardens - no way of making it catproof at all.

It really does sound as if your neighbour and perhaps your street, is the problem, rather than cat owners as a whole. As a cat owner, I can’t identify with quite a few of these posts. I have never seen a cat poo on some concrete, anywhere, for instance. Also it sounds as though the cats in the road are kind of trapped, as you mention 7ft walls with barbed wire on top at the ends, which does seem fairly extreme. The man looking after the feral cats should probably have reported them to a cat rescue a long time ago, to get them rehomed if young, or at least neutered. A rescue would have done this for nothing if they are really stray.

@JustWoww

It's the colour because of rain washing over. But the colour is an unhealthy yellow anyway.
There are two competing Toms doing this. I've chased a huge feral ginger off this spot a couple of times in the daytime, so he's started visiting in the dead of the night. Haven't seen him in the process as my motion cam only films for 40sec after getting triggered but it's him and another one.

I sprinkled a 100g tub of cayenne there but still arrived from my night-shift work to fresh poop. Asbestos arses 💩😂

This would in no way deal with the issue of cats in the garden, but I do wonder if you sprinkled catnip everywhere, would the cats stop poo-ing in the garden because they'd want to keep it clean to revel in the glory of catnip-land? At least then you wouldn't be on clean up duty on the daily :)

YABU and very very strange

They must know you dislike them…..that’s why they visit…..

Seriously, are you absolutely sure it is cats? These poops - maybe foxes? They are very wily and can climb. I have never seen exposed cat shit anywhere round my way - and there are loads of them roaming around. No mice though.

Keep having mental flashes of a very angry woman sporting a nose clip crouched behind a hedge at 3am with a hunting rifle!