loads of cats in my garden how can I stop them?

Burned_Alive said:
Myth perpetuated by cat owners who cant be bothered to train their cat properly. If these cats were properly trained, they wouldnt be using my garden as a toilet.



No other wildlife causes such regular and large scale damage as cats do. I spend time keeping garden/flower beds/lawn neat, only for the cats to dig holes everywhere in the flower bed and rip lumps out of the lawn. Not to mention that the whole area stinks of cat wee/poo. I then have to go and spend time cleaning up after someone elses pet, how is that fair?

If you found a person making the same holes and ripping the same lumps out of the turf they would be charged with criminal damage. All the same to me.
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http://www.inbrief.co.uk/animal-law/cats-fouling.htm
 
Burned_Alive said:
Myth perpetuated by cat owners who cant be bothered to train their cat properly. If these cats were properly trained, they wouldnt be using my garden as a toilet.



No other wildlife causes such regular and large scale damage as cats do. I spend time keeping garden/flower beds/lawn neat, only for the cats to dig holes everywhere in the flower bed and rip lumps out of the lawn. Not to mention that the whole area stinks of cat wee/poo. I then have to go and spend time cleaning up after someone elses pet, how is that fair?

If you found a person making the same holes and ripping the same lumps out of the turf they would be charged with criminal damage. All the same to me.
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haha. This post is funny. I assume you meant it tongue in cheek.

Training cats...Now thats funny. Next you be saying we should be training goldfish.

Hardly a myth its backed up in Law.

Might be worth checking that these "cats" aren't in fact Hedghogs.
 
dog, my Patterdale will happily snap the little 'free spirited' pests necks like he does with the squirrels that are not fast enough in our local woods.
 
cheesyboy said:
A bit of a pet (:rolleyes:) peeve of mine, this. I've got young children myself, and do find myself patrolling the garden for cat **** on a fairly regular basis.

Fortunately, none of my direct neighbours have cats (and one has dogs, which probably helps), and the gardens are all fairly substantial so cats don't need to wander too far from their own home. But the *******s do still come in my garden quite regularly to scare away the birds, eat the frogs, and **** on my lawn.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to do what it takes to discourage them from entering your garden. Up to and including causing pain (such as being shot by a cherry tomato from a catapult :cool:) or mortal fear. Though, personally, I've never had the time or inclination to do any more than open the window and shake my fist menacingly :D .

Part of me thinks cat ownership should actually come with a requirement to pay reparations to your neighbours for the externalities you inflict on them in their own home.

I tell a lie. I entirely think they should pay reparations :)
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We need laws like those in North America where certain cities ban outdoor cats and impose heavy fines on those that Do allow them to roam.

If you can't keep your pet under control the. You shouldn't have a pet. Simple.

It would also do the world of good to wildlife populations in the UK as well.
 
i found a link earlier when looking at suggestions of paintball use where a lot of americans were against harm to cats. go figure.

Amp34 said:
It would also do the world of good to wildlife populations in the UK as well.
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see above RSPB link, not even they believe there is strong enough evidence that cats impact local bird life.

reminder to those suggesting firing objects at the cats that if caught then punishments include up to 6 months jail time and £5000 fine. or both.

" :) "
 
neil_g said:
except a cat is only ever semi-domesticated. which is the same reason why rules for dogs and cats are very different. becides a bit of poo is hardly criminal damage. otherwise best cover your garden in plastic to stop the local wildlife contaminating it..

anyway i think most farmers would welcome cats to keep down any rodent populations.
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You're right: cats gonna cat. However, the cat is only there because someone made the decision to acquire a cat in the first place.

It's actually quite frustrating that some else's decision to own a destructive pet has such an annoying impact upon others' space. I like having birds, frogs, and even slow worms (I found one on my lawn last year- was well chuffed!) in my garden. The cats attack and discourage all of these, and replace them with lumps of diseased (toxoplasmosis) excrement.

Is it fair to inflict your pet upon people who choose not to have pets?

I feel the same about dogs, to be honest. Although they don't **** on my lawn, they do attack me when I'm jogging, have the entire run of the local park whilst my children are fenced in to a small, safe dog-free area, and leave **** on the pavements and grass verges (a minority of owners, I accept, but a consequence of societal dog ownership).
 
neil_g said:
i found a link earlier when looking at suggestions of paintball use where a lot of americans were against harm to cats. go figure.



see above RSPB link, not even they believe there is strong enough evidence that cats impact local bird life.

reminder to those suggesting firing objects at the cats that if caught then punishments include up to 6 months jail time and £5000 fine. or both.

" :) "
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That was an interesting link, although I have in the past seen studies suggesting the opposite. Obviously stills contentious issue. :)

What cats do with certainly is scare animals out of gardens, but then so do dogs.

I'm still all for laws keeping cars indoors however. It appears to work in other countries so there is no reason it shouldn't work here.
 
destructive how?

if youre that bothered then spray them with water. they wont come back after a couple of times. and its not harmful.

edit: that was to cheesyboy
 
Amp34 said:
That was an interesting link, although I have in the past seen studies suggesting the opposite. Obviously stills contentious issue. :)

What cats do with certainly is scare animals out of gardens, but then so do dogs.

I'm still all for laws keeping cars indoors however. It appears to work in other countries so there is no reason it shouldn't work here.
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indeed. you'd like to think the RSPB had their finger on the pulse of bird research however :D

scaring animals from the garden im not so sure about. birds will just fly back again when the cat has moved on, rodents hide under bushes etc. see that all the time in our garden when a passing neighbourhood cat wanders through.
 
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neil_g said:
to wildlife you mean? seems to be a debatable point (see last couple of posts).

i dont have any figures on cat vs frogs or slow worms though :D
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There's a distinction to be made with overall bird populations in general, and the bird visitors to my garden (or a garden) in particular, I'm sure you can understand.

Certainly, in my old house, bird number in my garden noticeably reduced upon the arrival of a pair of cats a few doors away. I would expect that I would get more wildlife in my current garden if the unnatural predators weren't roaming - I have a lot of fruit trees and leaf cover for them to find food, it's a pretty good place for birds.
 
neil_g said:
more RSPB interesting reading

http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspx

(seems to post date any other article online)
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Yes, I've read that.

My point still stands: there's a distinction between bird populations in general, and the bird/wildlife visitors to a garden in particular. Arrival of cats has a noticeable effect.

And they still **** all over the lawn my kids play on.

Cat ownership is a selfish pursuit. You are damning your neighbours to accept the externalities of your pet. It's an unfair situation (albeit one blown up a little by the nature of internet debate)
 
link above said:
What can’t I do?

You should not do anything to harm a cat. Under the Protection of Animals Act 1911 it is a criminal offence to cruelly beat, kick, ill-treat, torture, infuriate or terrify any animal. It is also a criminal offence under the Protection of Animals Act 1911 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to administer poison, injurious drugs or substances to an animal. Under the Animal Welfare Act 2005 it is a criminal offence to allow an animal protected by the act to suffer unnecessarily. Cats are protected by the Act.

A cat is treated by the law as goods and, therefore, the taking of a cat from its owner will amount to theft. You should not, therefore, steal any cat on or caught fouling on your land.
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:)

Seriously criminal damage? :confused:

I think the bit above about infuriating them is a bit off tho, surely any deterrant, acts in a way to annoy them so they dont come back
 
neil_g said:
indeed. you'd like to think the RSPB had their finger on the pulse of bird research however :D

scaring animals from the garden im not so sure about. birds will just fly back again when the cat has moved on, rodents hide under bushes etc. see that all the time in our garden when a passing neighbourhood cat wanders through.
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That is true. I can't find much data on other wildlife (in the UK at least) unfortunately so at best (as from the RSPB website links) the data is inconclusive at the moment.

On the other hand, before we sterilised this island there were almost certainly plenty of small felines (such as the Scottish Wildcat) around. I doubt there are more domestic cats now than there were wild felines once upon a time (conjecture), but then bird (and most small animal) populations have plummeted, especially in the last 50 or so years (mostly from changing farming techniques and destruction of habitat).

What we do see from elsewhere in the world however paints a different story, domestic/feral cats can have a huge, measurable, toll on wildlife. So cat owners, please neuter your cat and keep feeding them!:p
 
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Amp34 said:
I doubt there are more domestic cats now than there were wild felines once upon a time - that is all my conjecture though.
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You are most certainly incorrect. There are around 8 million domestic cats in the UK.

When you consider the manner in which most wild felines live (solitary, hunting over large areas of territory), there's no chance there were ever anything like that many wild cats. It's doubtful to my mind that there would ever have been more than a few tens of thousands of them. Probably less than that.
 
Glad I made it clear I was guessing. :p

Interesting stat from http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/wildcat.html

Like most felines Scottish wildcats are solitary and largely crepuscular creatures; meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk when hunting or marking territory. They rest up in hidden thickets, dens or forests by day and patrol and hunt over territories which can vary from 1-2km2 up to 40km2 dependent upon prey density and habitat. Males and females come together solely to mate early in the year, for the rest of their lives the cats are alone.
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So up to 200,000 in the whole of the UK - obviously habitat dependent....
 
Burned_Alive said:
Sorry it offends your sensibilities (not really - (I'm a child)), but I consider cats a pest. It may be your cuddly pet at home, but in my garden they rip everything up, dig everywhere and wee/crap everywhere.

If it was legal, I would catch them and destroy them as you would on a farm. They are basically causing legal criminal damage. Cat owners should be held legally accountable for any damage caused, as any Dog owner would be if a Dog was doing the same.
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The same could be said about other people's children. I do find it concerning that people seem to be attempting to justify their psychopathic tendencies with "...but they make a mess of my lawn". Honestly, if you think it's acceptable to torture, maim, and ultimately kill a cat because it's done a poo in your garden then maybe you have bigger problems!
 
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