Cats everywhere!

[GoldfinchFeather]

Since we have plenty of threads to moan about dogs and dog owners, how about a bit of balance and a thread for the same about cats?

I, for one, am not a fan of the things and think there are too many around. And sure, while the problems they cause may be less obvious than dogs/dog ownership, I personally think they're worse in many ways. Particularly for the terrible effect they have on local wildlife and birds in particular.

On numerous occasions I've had the misfortune to come across birds and animals that have clearly been attacked by cats. One distressing incident occurred just a few weeks ago - on an evening walk I came across a domestic cat that had just attacked a tiny baby wild rabbit. Despite shooing the cat off and it still being alive when I got to it, it didn't survive.

Seeing that made me just want to go and give the bloody thing a boot up the backside.

Yet many cat owners seem to find this behaviour either a mildly amusing part of their cat ownership ("you'll never guess what my Tiddles caught the other day!"), or have no qualms about letting their cats roam freely and slowly kill all wildlife within a several mile radius. When really, they should just be kept indoors.

And if they were, there'd be far less of them that were always going bloody missing or being stupid enough to get themselves run over on the road.

Surely I can't be alone in my hatred of cats?!

My cats are all terrified of my littlest chook Gracie - she chases them for their lives if they get too close 😂

This again 🙄

Cats are great. Couldn't be without them, or dogs. There's something quite sinister about people who dislike animals.

What did you say?

I have three rescue ex battery hens and they love spreading their wings wide and running together at the cat! It used to freak him out but now he just stays put and they whoosh past him and make their bwark bwark noise! I think the cat thinks he's supposed to guard them! They've reached an uneasy truce anyway!

You’re quite a disgusting person for wanting to harm an ANIMAL who is behaving like an animal. Maybe direct your white hot rage at the real culprits who are knowingly destroying the planet - humans

I do like cats, but I do think there are possibly too many. My mum is a pretty responsible cat owner in that she has always got her cats in at night, partly so they have less chance at decimating our small bird and mammal population, but even so she seems to be in denial about cats crapping in other peoples gardens. Also, me and DH once saw one of her cats kill a bird by the bird table in her garden, only to have her say, 'that one never goes after birds,' in disbelief when we told her 😬

Cats are very useful. My mum's cat saved her neighbours' rabbits from being eaten by a fox. And Pusheen is one of my favourite things ever. Cat owners don't expect everyone to put up with their cats and drag them everywhere either.

Another misery guts moaning about cats yet the UK would have a much bigger rodent problem without them.
Lots of bigger birds attack other birds and wildlife too.
And it's always the lazy people who never bother with their shit holes of a garden that moan the most.

I do prefer dogs. We’ve had cats as well, and I’ve loved them, but never as much as I’ve loved our dogs. I hate to see them catching birds, but OTOH I think it’s cruel to keep cats permanently indoors.

Still, at least we don’t routinely de-claw them - to stop them damaging furniture, like they do in America.

I don't like them, trawling all over my garden and shitting everywhere, We wouldn't put up with dogs doing it, so why cats?!

My cat is an indoors cat (she was a rescue cat and has always been indoors - we leave the back door open in summer so she could go out but she never wants to go further than the doorstep), but if she was allowed out, she would definitely sort out some squirrels. It's the highlight of her week when she spots some out of the window.

I hope you are a vegan, OP. And that little rabbit probably suffered a lot more from you chasing the cat away than if you'd let it despatch the poor thing quickly.

I love cats, so YABU in my opinion.

So if it's okay in your opinion for birds of prey to kill other animals then why is it wrong for cats to kill them.

Both are animals who hunt and feed on their prey.

You do realise that not all cats live in a home, wild or abandoned cats live outside and it's a food source to them.

If you were that bothered about animal welfare then you wouldn't be eating meat as the meat we eat comes from animals who are breed to become food for us to eat and we don't need meat to survive.

There's a cat in an old peoples facility that If they go and sleep with a human the human is the next to die

There is a police cat in the US

There are therapy cats

How do we know cats can't sniff out cancer? Because the go to animal is always dogs

Look on YouTube there are plenty of videos of cats protecting their humans

I like dogs as long as they are on a lead and they don't poop in the pub garden

Dogs are superior in every way. That's just fact.

It's just nature. Other animals hunt also. Why are you just moaning about cats

Exactly. I drove up the A12 recently and every few feet there were dead baby deer, badgers, foxes in the central reservation.
Humans cause way more destruction than cats.

Yeah, we cat and dog owners think you're c*nty too.

Cats bring happiness to millions.

Nope she doesn't leave our garden. Stays away from the joint fence with next door who have a gorgeous huggggge lab and just watches any other cats who casually walk along the fences.

YANBU
Even my INDOOR kitten is a menace. Dominates my sweet natured long suffering pooch 😥

No need to pit our pets against each other: they both have their plus and negative points.

And come on, cats smell much better than dogs. My cat smells Iike biscuits! My dog on the other hand...

It's a good thing humans aren't responsible for killing any wildlife. They also seem to get everywhere and some of them can be really annoying...

Ah, I forgot cars are an indigenous species and not at all man made. My bad. Your logic is flawless.

love cats buat agree their hunting is a big issue.