To suspect my neighbour killed my cat

[Mani2024]

Three years ago we moved to our new house. Day one we met one of our neighbours and he asks whether we have a cat because he hates them. We didn’t at that point but we had planned to get one as we and our children really wanted one. neighbour begged us not too even though there are many many cat in the area. We reluctantly agreed to keep the peace but after a terrible year with lots of heartache we decided it was non of his business and got two kittens.

When he found out we had cats he made a passive aggressive comment to my six year old child about how one of the cats in particular had been in his garden and on his bird table. Some months later I heard our cats squealing. I thought they found themselves in a fight with another cat so called out to stop it but turned out to be my neighbour doing something to them to get them out of his garden. He said they were stalking his bird house.

We tried to settle things down with him, said feel free to spray them with water if they come over, we would look into a fence with a slope and if they ever mess in his garden (which they doubt they had as they still used litter trays) he could put over the fence with a spade. That conversation went well but he did say he’d killed a cat previously because it had chased a bird and that the killing had been unintentional.

fast forward some weeks and one of our kittens was found at the end of the road dead in the road with a sever head injury. This is the cat that both neighbours had said was the main culprit of jumping on their bird tables. Initially I was extremely upset and couldn’t think clearly but after a week or so I remembered that morning I had heard a cat scream that was worse than you would usually hear and had looked out my window to see what was going on. My husband saw my neighbour around that time walking up the road away from where she was later found and when asked what he was up to today said he was going for a long walk. I saw the neighbour in his garden briefly a week later, when our eyes met he went straight back into his house which is unusual as he usually chats to me. Generally he has been quite friendly apart from the issue with the cats.

i have spoken to my husband and a few friends about this and generally the consensus is that I’m overthinking and that this theory is just generally wild. Im
absolutely convinced he killed her and placed her at the end of the road to make it look like she got run over. Then again, I’m so desperately upset by it all that I’m not sure if the grief is clouding my judgement

It's most likely that he killed the cat but I can't understand why you continually let the cats out after many, many times he complained and threatened to harm them?

👏
Yes.

How do you feel about humans, Christ we do far worse.!

A neighbour used to poison cats, so very possible. I’m sorry for your loss OP. Your neighbour sounds vile.

I personally am not a fan of birds, not in my garden, not shitting all over the place. Our neighbour puts food out and our garden is covered in shit- have had to have a word with him to stop doing it.

Do you and other posters eat chicken? Turkey? Goose?

Isn’t it a crime to kill a cat? It should be. He doesn’t own nature.

Whilst I agree that cats should be able to go outside and roam, when you live in an urban environment next door to someone who has made i clear that he hates cats and will harm or kill them then you'd have to be pretty stupid to keep letting your cat out!

You'd keep your cat indoors and invest in cat trees and cat shelves etc to keep them stimulated.

Years ago we had a friend who had Siamese cats and she would take them out on a lead go a huge aviary type structure that had things to climb on and plants etc and was like a garden within a garden.

False comparison. Wild birds vs domestic animals (cats/farm animals). No, people shouldn't be killing cats (assuming it was a car), but cats shouldn't be killing wild birds either.

The RSPB themselves say that cats do not have an affect on bird numbers. Cats kill a tiny tiny percentage of birds and those they do catch tend to be unwell or injured birds in the first place.

I'd get CCTV and point it at his fence and have one camera put up high on your house covering your garden and maybe his. I'd get another cat too. I also suspect he has killed your kitten. He's a bastard.

"Isn’t it a crime to kill a cat? It should be. He doesn’t own nature."

The potential crime is 'criminal damage' as they are considered property.

The Animal Welfare Act addresses intentional acts of cruelty.

But I doubt the police would be interested - difficult to prove.

And actually none of us know whether he did it or not. He hates cats and has accidentally killed one in the past, but that doesn't mean he'd intentionally harm one.

You can't have a camera covering his garden surely?

How convenient. We shoot pheasant for sport and other creatures. We kill loads of things, some for fun, some to eat.

I don't kill anything for fun. Neither does anything in my house. I haven't said the cat should have been killed (if it was), only that cats shouldn't be out killing birds. I'm not sure why that's so offensive.

That’s illogical.

It’s like your neighbour saying that he hates cars and in the past destroyed one.

As his neighbour, would you desist from getting a car, or would you expect him to respect your property? You’d expect him to respect your property regardless of his feelings, because damaging your car would be against the law, not to mention very un-neighbourly!

@ChildlessCatLadiesRuleOK

the person I quoted isn't the OP, and no, there was absolutely no need for that poster to be so graphic. Their delight in the description is sickening.

I understand tall buildings are the worst culprit for killing birds, and French windows also cause bird deaths. Generally people don’t consider the environmental impact of French windows enough eh…

I don't think that analogy works. A car doesn't behave like a cat and, while I wouldn't do anything to my neighbour's cat or car, I would definitely take action if their car was on my property. The cat is on the neighbour's property. Not that I think that is justification for harming an animal, but the cat is causing a problem for the neighbour by being on their property, so it's up to the owner to change the situation.

And how many of the same same people who, on the one hand, stand so firmly on the side of the wildlife in the cat argument will, on the other hand be happily using slug pellets, pesticides, rat poison, weed killer in their gardens. Cutting down hedges and replacing them with fences, removing trees that block their light, putting down plastic grass and not picking up their dogs’ poo from foot paths?

We have another neighbour who has 2 bird tables and 8 bird feeders which are filled to the brim for the birds all year round. He then wonders why he has a rat infestation. So he puts down rat poison. He then wonders why he keeps finding dead hares in his garden without a mark on them and why the hedgehogs and owls seem to have disappeared. He also found a dead red kite in his garden last week.

It was not intended to be shocking....

One day, a different neighbour found it under their dining table, where one of their cats was gnawing on its head

no of course it wasn't. Dont apologise for me being offended, either apologise or don't fir being gratuitously graphic.

you don't need that degree of graphic detail to make your point.

Not to mention the rabbit was in the owners home (which the garden is part of). However, cats, like foxes have the right to roam, so I personally would have a rabbit or guinea pig etc, free roaming in my garden.

@BanksysSprayCan it's not illogical.

A car is an object. A cat is a living, breathing creature that has feelings.

The neighbour made it clear he hates cats so why in earth did the op be so blasé with the welfare of her cats knowing full well if they ventured into his garden that the man would take some kind of action to harm or kill them?

The man no doubt has a fence or a wall or hedging around his garden, which are reasonable measures for privacy.

It's up to the op to ensure her cats would never breach his boundary and set foot in his garden where harm awaits them.

The law

Cats cannot 'trespass'

Cats enjoy a unique position as the Animals Act 1971 does not apply to them. This is how cats have this 'right to roam' and they cannot, therefore, trespass in the legal sense. Therefore, an owner cannot be legally responsible for where their cats go.

My neighbour saw her cat climb up and scoop baby birds out of a nest. They destroy I think the figure is 6 billion songbirds in the USA every year. I don't know the figures for the UK but they will be having a huge impact. They creep around the countryside round here. Ground nesting birds aren't safe. There is a gorgeous friendly cat comes into my garden and then the other day it went and caught something in the bushes. Saw it with a mouse/shrew. So that's a meal taken from an owl or some other natural predator. My stupid neighbour proudly told me she doesn't feed her cat - lets it hunt. It's all so sad and unnecessary.

Perhaps but in my jurisdiction, cats must be contained if the neighbour asks for it to be kept of their property and all cats have a curfew at night. I know this is a UK site though and I assume that applies in some or all of the UK. Not saying you're wrong, just saying that likening it to a car is a bit silly because the neighbour's car wouldn't be on my property (unless they wanted it on a tow truck).

I did find a puppy in my yard one day. No collar or anything. Assumed it was a stray and the RSPCA came and took it away. It did find it's owners who were then more careful with it. I'd likely think the same of a cat that kept hanging around me. I've had a lot of strays around and I've looked after them all but, if I wasn't willing to, I'd make sure it was turned over.

People kill foxes, they use dogs for ratting. They do this for fun too.

Right, because people who care about birds are definitely the same people who support fox hunting, bear bating etc etc. 😒

I would not kill or hurt any animal but the birds in my garden are more precious than a neighbours cat.
I appreciate that that is the cat's nature so they should be kept in. While cat owners by law do not have to keep them in they would be much better in a catio or walked on a lead.

And vice versa, surely?

You care about your pet having fun but not other animals. Similar to what PP said, if a dog killed a deer in Richmond Park, would anyone call that nature?

I love cats, but I'm not interested in sim having one because I know domestic pets them killing birds is not natural.