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.

That's not cat poo.

It cost us £4000 to cat proof our back garden. It was a huge sum for us to save, but it eliminates any injury/death from cars, cat fights, etc. I don't have to worry about where they are or if people are feeding them or letting them into their house. I used to worry so much when our previous cats went out, I wish I'd got it years ago to save me the anxiety.

They are fine with the back garden and don't try to get out.
A lot of people don't have this money though, or have neighbours willing to have the fencing put up on a shared fence.

Also, I highly recommend a terrier-type dog or two - the kind that has an inbuilt cat radar and firmly believes that one of their existential purposes is the extermination of all cats. No cats EVER come in my garden, and there are tons of them in the surrounding houses. They know better.

i live in a 1940s house with a three foot high dry stone wall at the back a two foot fence at one side of our house an open access to the garage which we need access to for our motorbike at the same side my house , without turning it into fort knox it would be near on impossible to keep my cats in or other cats out and would not fit in with the rest of the street as they are all semi open plan

front garden is small walls on two sides and a small fence running down the side and im not going to put six foot fences with cat wiring at the top of that either

“It’s foxes” “cats bury their poo” the battle cry of irresponsible cat owners. They really really really don’t bury their poo.

Yes, I'll do so in the summer with the new regs in place. At that point it will be possible to fully understand the extent of the problem of chipped vs. no chip animals and I think RSPCA would be very much more likely to act and help if a large feral population is identified vs. domesticated roamers.

Mind you, the entitlement of the cat owners might only make them defensive and do absolutely nothing to alleviate the problem for me.
If my building of garden re-enforcements (with a dash of illegal barbed wire, like some neighbours have) works, I might just leave the cat owners to their hoardes of cats and their feces.

That is NOT cat poo.
🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
Educate yourself. It's very rare for a cat to poo on solid ground.. they need to be able to scratch and bury.

Is there a reason you haven’t reported your neighbour before, OP? He sounds like a much worse version of those people who feed massive flocks of urban pigeons.

I think it's your particular neighbour and the set up of your row of terraces which is the problem rather than cats in general. It sounds like he has essentially lured loads of them to his garden and they are trapped at the back of your houses by high fences and barbed wire?? That's an odd set up

One of my neighbours has five cats and another has two or three and I've never found a poo on my path or patio. Our gardens are much more open though

You sound deeply, deeply sad and unpleasant, even for a keyboard warrior.

@Moier

Here's some education for you:

From online sources to help bury(pun?) 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.

Looks more like sick than poo- they must've a strange diet round you to poo like that- cat poos are usually very dark brown and firm like this. Never seen a cat poo on a drive before and there's lots live on my street- including two of my own.

RSPB said this to keep donations coming in from cat people. With the amount of deer about, a few lurchers taking deer wouldn't have an impact on the numbers either but it's not very nice for the deer to be minding their own business and face a slow death so it was made illegal. Think of how you'd feel if it was your cat minding its own business and a bigger predator came along and started crunching on it, it would be awful. So why would anyone who claims to be an animal lover be okay with their pet doing it to another animal? It's needless cruelty.

You'll get hell for posting anything cat negative on catsnet OP. You're only allowed to bitch about dogs here.

I mean — cats roam. As a cat lover and owner of several all my life I do not really like the idea of indoor cats nor walking them on leads. They are fundamentally very different animals to dogs. And as everyone else says; I have never in my life known a cat to poo on concrete. Never. Foxes on the other hand…

Wild cats might behave differently- but you live in an urban area, and they are domestic cats and unlikely to be feral so someones pet- not wild cats.

One study does not prove that cats usually leave their poo uncovered- I have always had cats my whole life and they definitely bury it because I see them daily. The neighbours cats do too- the only times I have seen them not bury it is if they are disturbed, or accidentally poo on a hard surface. Is there a lack of soil in the gardens near you for them to go in? ie. lots of patios and gravel and concrete in gardens?

Also I have 3 cats with an enclosed garden and two of them don't bury their shit, before I got the cat proofing my neighbour's cat didn't bury it either.

Don't be silly, you can't control Cats 😂. It's in their nature to roam free, it annoys me that Horses poo all over the road but I wouldn't expect horse riders to get off and pick it up. Animals are animals.

I was going to say this. They gravitate towards soil, gravel and loose floor covering like bark etc. Shitting in the middle of paths is not commonplace in cats. I accept it's a nuisance though. And I am a cat owner. Mind you, mine come in to use the litter tray even if they've been outside for a few hours.

@QueenCamilla That’s definitely cat poo.
Without a doubt.
Unfixed male cats shit on hard surfaces and do not bury their foul clayey turds.

I bet those turds are rammed with worm eggs as well.

There used to be a cat nutter in Richmond, down by the river who fed all the ferals when I was a kid.

The cats absolutely knew what time it was, and they’d be waiting. ( He fed them on a low wall)
scattering food in heaps for a good three metres.)

I hope when the chipping law comes in something can be done with the ferals-
They need neutering and spaying otherwise the colony will never go away.

Is there a local cat rescue/ cats protection league that could help ?

I'm afraid of horrid neighbourly relations whilst there's (most likely) zero consequences for him.
Minus the ill animals (which he'd then claim not to be his and just getting fed out of goodness of his heart) no one can actually do anything about him wanting to feed everyone's cats. He puts out cat food in his garden and also at the business down the road. Daily. It probably draws cats from far and wide.
There were kittens born in the garden that are adults now and still around.

But there is nothing I can legally do, apart from torch his adapted cat-shed. Oh, wait-that's illegal too. 🙀😬

I only wish he was forced to garden-contain them, neuter, insure and care for them. But hey, apparently that makes me a miserable cat hater.

Can I ask how you know for a fact it’s cat poo? Fox poo does seem more likely to me as a cat wouldn’t usually poo on concrete (apologies if this has been answered already, not read all the thread yet)

A few decades ago, neighbours used to fight over manure for their gardens. Horse poo is way more useful than cat poo.

We get a lot of cat shit in our front & back garden too - I know it’s cats because we have cameras. It does make me laugh when people say roaming cats cover their shit! Of course they bloody don’t, not all of them anyway. And yes they do shit on concrete, why do people always say this?

I doubt OP is annoyed about the fox cat poo because it isn’t useful.

@oakleaffy
You know the guy. And the turds 😎
I've seen bloody mucus and worms.. Way, way too much info for me.
I wouldn't even have a pet cat or dog in my current house as I'm not sure with the current situation I'd be able to keep them healthy. They'd definitely contract something. That's also something for the decent (if there are any) owners of roamers to keep in mind - they are exposed to some mighty pathogens via the less cared for cats.