To not want neighbours cats in my garden?

[Rainbow3210]

Our neighbour has cats and they keep coming into our garden. They have also made their way into our house several times through the window and back door. I’m currently pregnant and have two young children. The children get upset when they come in as they don’t understand why they come and go (they want them to stay to play with). We have a lot of songbirds birds that sit in a bush in our garden and the cats are constantly trying to hunt the birds.

The cats are also doing the toilet in the garden which my husband has to clean with a hose. I believe it’s not entirely safe to clean up cat mess when pregnant.

I spoke to the neighbour and asked if they could stop the cats coming into my house and garden. They said there is nothing that can be done.

Is it unreasonable that this is bothering me?

That is a very selfish attitude. I want to keep cats so fuck you no matter what harm they cause you. Would you have this attitude in any other interactions with people, or is it just the cat insanity that is speaking here.

FlyMeSomewhere · 11/08/2025 19:26
"So you want mass abandonment and mass cull of all cats? That's highly disgusting! I adopt rescues! Do you want them all dead? Fuck me your mindset is beyond help! Thing is that cat rescues take strays and ferals of the street, they get neutered and become pets that like mine barely leave our property, you want people to stop owning cats, that means the rescues can no longer take them off the street if they can't home them, if they can't take them off the street and you would just have lots of roaming strays and ferals that breed like hell and kill wildlife to survive. Your comment is pretty silly isn't it?"

many places successfully operate trap neuter release schemes for ferals. Its not an immediate solution but it does control the population. I honestly don't mind people having pet cats. I mind when they come into my garden try and kill the wild birds and shit in my garden.

@godmum56 nothing is a predator to cats in the uk ( although a badger will if provoked). Yet cats prey on garden birds, small mammals, frogs etc
You are destroying the ecosystem system by overpopulating these apex predators.

not me. I haven't owned a cat since I was around 11 and it was that or a pet dinosaur.

Collars are not safe for cats and many cats won’t tolerate them/will just find ways to get them off.

Yes and I don’t agree with that personally at all (don’t eat meat) . But as a society we have accepted that it’s ok to kill animals we eat for food - (and tbf food isn’t trivial). There are still laws that protect how you have to treat them/ welfare while they are alive, (although not nearly enough of course) it’s not just a free for all to maximise every human convenience .

It’s not selfish at all. Cats don’t cause you “harm” what silliness- precisely why they are allowed to roam. Minor inconvenience is what they cause you and that’s all part and parcel of living in communities (which consist of both humans and animals). Everything we do affects others in some small way.

Absolutely they cause harm. Just because you don’t see it.
They are allowed to roam because no one has updated the law to take into account the increase in cats in the uk. Australia did. So should we.

It’s not “weird” to have a relationship with / to care about an animal. I think humans that treat animals like they are expendable commodities are weird personally- or a word worse than weird that I won’t say . Animals kill other animals (- humans do it on extreme mass/ the most). Cats kill mice and rats, they also sometimes kill birds, as do foxes etc. etc.
Cats , however, are not a danger to humans which is part of why they have the right to roam whereas dogs do not. Also it’s not possible to train or walk a cat.

They absolutely do not cause you “harm”. This thread is moaning about some garden poo. It’s cruel and wrong to prevent a cat from roaming, it’s part of their natural instincts, health and wellbeing.

Also in Australia there are some local areas that have curfews or containment rules- but this is not nation wide- it varies by locality depending on local wildlife factors.

Nothing to do with poo in the neighbours garden 😂

Never heard of toxoplasmosis?

The only way to stop the cats in the garden is by getting a dog. You can't contain, explain or train cats not to roam.

completely tendencious, trivial concern. Lots of other things more commonly cause toxoplasmosis (like fruit or soil), it’s usually very mild and a lot of people are immune anyway.

https://www.cats.org.uk/help-and-advice/cats-and-your-family/cats-and-toxoplasmosis

Again, infections we may catch from other living creatures (humans, animals, plants) are part and parcel of communal life.

Get a dog that hates cats. Problem solved.

Toxoplasmosis is really serious if you are pregnant: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/toxoplasmosis/

Cat poo is the most common carrier of it, and uncooked meat also carries a risk.

The reason you’re likely to catch it from garden soil is due to there potentially being cat poo in it.

@Rainbow3210
Yes but the evidence shows that contact with cats is not a risk factor in likelihood of infection amongst pregnant women. Your concern about risk of harm caused by cats is massively over exaggerated and not backed by evidence. You just don't like the poo in your garden.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC27431/

Any pregnant woman who touches garden soil without gloves is stupid. I remember decades ago the gardener Rachel de Thame said that all women of childbearing age should always wear gloves when gardening. Cats themselves aren't harmful to pregnant women or anyone else.

@Blessthismess2There’s a lady across the road from me who walks her cat daily in a harness.

Thanks for sharing. This study is 25 years old so I feel more confident following the recent NHS guidelines. My understanding is the issue isn’t the contact with the cats it’s the poo. I wear gloves when gardening but my children’s garden toys often end up in our flowerbeds which I pick up. They get mucky playing in the garden as kids do, which I clean up.

As with all things in pregnancy the risk may be relatively low but it exists and any risks you can avoid you will. It’s why we give up sushi for 9 months, cured meats, certain cheeses due to listeria risk. Sleep on our back at night etc. It’s the official guidelines we follow to keep as safe as we can.

Yes sure, you avoid risks where you can of course. A risk you can’t avoid is the existence of your neighbours cat and their right to roam. The risk to you is realistically v minimal and you take basic proportions like wearing gloves if you garden. That’s it.

It’s not unreasonable to be bothering you, but YABU to think there is anything the neighbours can do. Our street is full of cats, we have them coming and going from our garden constantly. They scale 6ft fences. I don’t mind cats but I’d never have one myself and since living where we do I’ve found them to be such a nuisance. I’ve seen 2 of them (always the same 2) take a poo on our lawn and not cover it up, always in the same spot and happens all the time. I have to go up the garden and check for it before letting DS go out to play as it’s on the hill he likes to roll down. We have to keep the lid on his sandpit if we even leave it unattended for a short while or risk it being used as a litter tray. It’s not nice at all. If we leave our front door open, like for taking rubbish out, we’ve had a few come into the house!

Yes some (a very minority of) people do that- again it will depend on the personality of the cat and the area in which you live. I actually did some extensive research on this before getting a cat. on the whole cats will not accept being walked in a harness, and it’s not recommended by animal welfare charities as in general cats will find it stressful and scary. Cats are v different to dogs.

I’m pretty sure my daughter thinks I AM her pet dinosaur 😂

They’re not. The law recognises that no one can tell a cat what to do.

Dogs too?