Cats killed neighbours budgie!

[ethal80]

My nextdoor neighbour has a budgie whom he thinks the world of, he's a very tame bird and well trained.
Neighbour also has a dog flap installed...
I got a text early this morning asking if my cats were in. (I don't have a cat flap) I said that they'd been in all night, (which I thought they had) just been fed and let them out at 7am.
He told me his birdcage was open and budgie was gone...no windows open or no way of escape.
I helped search for the budgie...no luck. Later on today, I asked my son to brush our longhaired cat...he discovered blue feathers in his fur!! Unbeknown to me, my son had let him out and back in again at 4am this morning! He's killed the bird hasn't he? He's been known to go in the house as he gets along with the neighbours dog so isn't frightened.
Neighbour has been out thus morning, installed a motion camera, gone out and low and behold....my cat has again entered the property! He's sent me the footage of my cat at the cage today along with threatening messages to me and him saying that he's going to kill my f**King cats!
He's a big drinker and is out at the pub now with his brother and I just know that when they return, they're going to kick off. I'm so scared and feel sick at the thought of him harming my cats. I really think he's capable of it too as he hates cats anyway. I've got them both indoors now and filled the litter tray. Will try and keep them indoors until he's calmed down.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading if you've got this far but I just don't know what to do??

Next doors cat is a wandered and vey much an outdoor cat. It discovered we have budgies I now cannot have my front windows open as we caught hime trying to slide in and it will try and get in if it happens to be around when i'm unlocking house door

fully agree

I hope your cats will be OK op. Very worrying.

Times have changed. We have more info on the impact Felix has when he is left to roam.

Please do read this article.

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/2020/09/the-232-animals-in-this-photo-were-killed-by-house-cats-in-just-one-year

That's got nothing to do with a thread about whether the OP is to blame for her cat possibly killing the neighbour's budgie after entering via the dog flap.

I'm not grieving the field mouse I was gifted this week. They aren't endangered.

How would you feel if his ferocious dog had killed your cat? You seem a bit meh about his loss to be honest.

People love their pets and react. If he commits a crime call the police. I think trying to talk him around won't cut it.

Well if you use your critical thinking skills, actually it does.

It demonstrates why cats should be kept inside at night.

They hunt small animals (including the next door neighbour's budgie). With poor outcomes.

Surely you are just being obtuse and not that thick that you can't join the dots.

Oh and glad you don't give a shit about the field mouse. Me, me, me. Entitled much?

I hate cats and this thread has just added another reason to the list. Cat owners, take some responsibility for these violent agressive feral creatures that just kill kill kill.

At my last house, we had a big problem with rats thanks to neighbours feeding songbirds carelessly. DCat did sterling work killing these vermin daily. It's not his fault that everything small and squeaky looks the same to him.

Cats self-domesticated to kill vermin that live alongside humans and are still employed for this purpose on farms and by HM Govt. I'm not going to demonise them for doing the job they have done for humans for millenia.

That was fine when other factors weren't at play. Such as massively reduced natural habitat.

Cats don't discriminate - they kill anything in their path.

I like cats, I have one. She isn't allowed to roam free though. I stand by cats being indoors unless supervised or in a garden that they can't escape.

I still can't get my head around OPs son brushing the cat (must be a Persian or similar) and finding feathers. I thought most Persians would be house cats, arent they in high demand? Friends have Persians and there is absolutely no way they'd let their cats roam, for one thing they adore them and for another they cost a fortune.
I can't see how a short haired cat would have feathers tangled in their coats, and presumably you'd notice a brightly coloured feather too.
Totally bcatshit thread in so many ways.

As someone who works with wildlife, the chances of a weasel or a fox (no such thing as a feral cat in the U.K., just poorly cared for pets. Scottish wildcats are rare and would never enter a house) coming into your house is laughable. People made up lies some years back about foxes coming into their houses and attacking their kids but they were all bullshit - this doesn’t happen unless you feed foxes and lure them in. It simply does not happen, I have met and cared for foxes. And weasels absolutely no way. Nor badgers, nothing.

This man did not have to fear wildlife coming through the cat flap. The only problem was his next door neighbours cat whose owner KNEW it was a problem, did nothing and has barely cared since it killed his budgie. My dog prefers being outdoors but I don’t let her out the door to run wild. The cat is the issue here and OPs lack of care - maybe it was her son, but if her son is under 18 then again, OPs issue. Cannot believe people are still blaming the neighbour and going as far as to say you have to lock your windows otherwise it’s your own fault. Absolutely ridiculous, all so OP can shrug her shoulders and say not my fault but I’ll pay a tenner to replace that thing you really loved to absolve myself.

I’m sorry that’s happening to you, how frustrating. Have you spoken to the cats owners? I presume going by this thread they will do absolutely nothing about it? But it might be worth asking?

op how can you let your cat go into a house where there’s a cat hater? Literally your only option is to make the cat an indoor cat which I know is absolutely hell if they’re not but we did it after two of our cats were killed on the road and she’s gone from a cat why was always miaowing to be let out to being very content indoors

So when a dog kills a cat or rabbit or chicken etc, do you also have the same view? Do you think dogs should also be allowed to roam wild? Because it’s the same principle. If you domesticate an animal you have to bear some responsibility. You cannot say it’s one rule for cats and another for dogs, you cannot be that hypocritical just so that it suits you.
And yes, the law might say whatever, but many laws are draconian. This is a moral issue.

Cats can't have the same wild animal protection as actual wild animals because they are none indigenous, so be careful about using that argument. Also remember that if your cat is attacking and killing his pets in his home then he might feel he has the right to respond as a farmer would if a dog was attacking his livestock. I don't think its anyone's fault as such, but you should be stopping your cat being a nuisance, as a pp said, he loved that budgie as much as you love your cat. From a property point of view i think you should be liable for damages, as your property damages his. If you can't trust your cat not to be a nuisance, then you need to keep him in, otherwise you'll find him disappearing.

I also wonder what the point of view on here would be if OPs cat had gone next door and killed another cat or kitten.

Im betting some people have a cavalier attitude because the animal it killed was a bird and therefore can be ‘easily replaced’.

If my cat had done this I would be mortified. Mine is a roamer and goes into anyone's house who has a cat flap that isn't locked or a window open - the neighbour text me yesterday to tell me that she'd done in to their bathroom window and fallen into the toilet.

But you absolutely shouldn't have claimed it was his fault. No wonder the situation is as it is - although the neighbour has crossed the line with his aggressiveness.

Personally I'd apologise again and hope that sees an end to it.

Also, how long as the cat out for? If the bird is dead (and this is a real post) then the bird will be somewhere assuming your son didn't stay up at 4am waiting for the cat to return for an hour.

A dog is very different to a cat. A cat can not kill or maim a person for a start.

No but they can, and do, kills thousands of other species, including endangered animals. They can also spread disease and cause blindness in children if they have worms.

@Beebedspread your point is what? Cats exist, you may not like them but you can't eradicate them from the planet or change their natural instincts. The argument that all domestic cats should be kept indoors all the time is unrealistic and cruel. They are roaming animals.

I accept the risks that come with my cat going outside. I would be heartbroken if he was hit by car but I would accept it because he has had a happy, long life outdoors and indoors when it suits him and he demands food and a fuss.

There are many things in life that I don't like. Off lead dogs for example. Cyclists. Tories. But I don't demand they all stay indoors just to please me.

My point is that cats cannot change their behaviours, but their owners can take steps to manage them. This attitude of ‘well cats can do what they like because it’s their instinct’ is a shitty attitude of an owner who could take even basic steps to reduce the damage cats do, like a bell with a collar on it to warn wildlife, but half the time they won’t even do that. No one is saying that cats must be eradicated, but what does need to be eradicated is this ridiculous attitude of ‘oh well, can’t help it, just a cat’ when there are things you can do to manage your cats behaviour if you could be bothered. But once again, it’s ’my Cats right to freedom and to kill other species comes above anything else’s right to survive’ .

Hyperbole and factually incorrect. They mostly kill mice, not endangered, what disease do they spread, and it's dogs faceas that causes blindness.

As someone who works with wildlife, it’s NOT hyperbole and it’s factually correct. They kill shrews, voles, rabbits, thousands of birds, including ground nesting chicks, they eve even been documented as killing baby otters. They’re a serious danger to wildlife, to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.

Toxoplasmosis comes from cat faeces. It can causes blindness and brain damage.