logiclee

I feel contempt for the owners not so much for the cats. Sure the cats frustrate me but I'm an animal lover at heart, wouldn't hurt them.
The owners own three cat's, they know what damage is being done to their close neighbours property yet will not pay compensation, will not talk about any compromise and only seem to know swear words.
They are creating an anti social atmosphere in our local community and that annoys me more than anything else.

Lee

OllyK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2940146.stm

Seems gardeners in general are non to keen on cats

Senior_AP

You're ok but everyone is still stropping big time. I'm just a spectator now. Its amazing how this has sparked such a massive reaction isn't it.

OllyK

I was citing them as part of the debate, just thought people may be interested in reading some additional material. The material presents some interesting points for both sides of the argument and also shows some of the steps taken elsewhere to deal with the problem, which just shows it is not just a problem in the UK

OllyK

I quite agree, and I am happy to debate that in another thread, as it stands it is not relevant to this debate. Also remember that parents are legally responsible for their children.

logiclee

That's the approach I took, I had to deal with the problem which is why I installed the electric fence.
I could have easily killed all three cats and disposed of their bodies whithout anyone knowing.
Couldn't do that and didn't want to destroy any wildlife or humans for that matter.

I have solved my own fish problem but not the cat mess and plant damage and the damage to my neighbours car. I have lost count of the times he's asked me to put 240V on the fence.

Lee

TelBoy

LOL, that link mirrors this thread almost exactly!

I like this one in particular;

How many different ways can these people dream up ways of saying "It's not my problem, YOU deal with it" ?

ajm

lol @



I'm willing to give anything a go!

InvisibleMan

tis a true answer tho. get a cat then itll fight the other cat out of its territory. well it will if its not too full after eating all your fish

cats are so small & light. i bet you anything its a fox thats sh1tting everywhere

OllyK

Damn - beat me to it!!

TelBoy

Group buy on lupins?

OllyK

Foxes may be contributing to the issue, as yet I haven't seen a fox or found fox prints in my garden. I have however seen many cats digging up my plants, crapping in my beds and then lying sunning themseleves on other plants.

RichWalk

I take your point, however you have missed part of mine, it is nigh on impossible to provide legal discipline for childrens anti-social behaviour (re countless threads on SN) so to hope that the already overburdened legal system here can cope with the actions of cat owners is a tad altruistic IMO.

logiclee

Nope not a fox, I have cctv remember, did once have a problem with a medium sized black dog that would come onto the garden if the post man left the gate open.
One call to the dog warden and a word with the owners and they now keep it secure on their garden.

Lee

OllyK

I agree it is slow moving, but anti-social behaviour orders have been served on a number of individuals and they are being followed up where they have been broken.

Likewise a woman was jailed when her children played truant and it looks like she is going to be going back again (if she hasn't already).

OK it does not solve every situation, but if there is a chance of legal repercussion, people will on the whole be more likely to tow the line than if they can carry on doing what they are doing with impunity.

unclebuck

The other side of the coin. The rotton old git

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3049297.stm

UB

OllyK

Just goes to show, try to protect your property and you can get done for it, but no order banning the cat owner from owning another cat due to not taking proper care to ensure its safety.

OK, tragic it died, but if the animal had been under control, it would not have been in the garden and indeed there would have been no need for the fence either.

It does say the gardener was troubled by the cat for some time, it would be interesting to know if he had taken the issue up with the owner and if so what there response was. I can only assume (I know I know), that if he did take it up, they were un-prepared to come to a suitable compromise, hence the old guy feeling the need to put up the fence.

Josh L

I'm sorry, but this has gone on long enough.

I fail to see how a thread which can have no real conclusion, other than to pit cat lovers against cat haters, can be of any use to anyone, let alone SN. Neither can I see any point in discussing the niceties of which animals may or may not reasonably be killed by an agrieved gardener.

That said, I'm locking this thread.

Josh

Neil Smalley

I agree with Josh's sentiments and motives in that pretty much every the cat thread we've had have ended up in flame wars and being locked/deleted and heavily edited. However this thread could still yet buck that rule, so for the moment it's being unlocked.

There is however a condition. This thread will be locked should there be a single nasty/tasteless remark or picture posted to it, or another thread related to it.

Jye

Cat corner

Seriously, I agree with Bravo, seems to me people think that by saying things again and again that they will somehow become true, how futile. Should have stayed locked. I await the muppets who feel that they can alter the course of the discussion in any way.

unclebuck

LOL that has to be a first. I'll post my piccie up in celebration.... but then again...





UB

SomeDude

B2Z,

Was thinking in the car about this cruelty. Funny, I do agree with you wholehartedly that cats should be allowed to go out when they want to, yet, one sentence from our vet keeps ringing in my ear...

"Cats that are allowed to roam free have an average life-span of 2 years".

Average is of course just that, depends on where you live, how smart the cats are (mine are pretty dumb), but it really made me think about the "cruel" part.

Me, I paid a lot of money to find a house with no traffic, and will pay for that in the next 10 years as well, so they are allowed to eat lupines & crap on the neighbours (getting confused now ), but I guess it does make a difference for people living in heavy traffic areas.

InvisibleMan

what about moving it to muppets, surely its content is worthy of that where it wont be in breach of an serious or intellectual comments

Jerome

Your cats can eats wolves! Certainly not messing with them.

greasemonkey

I doubt that's a sentiment many cat owners would agree with B2Z, seeing as, statistically, most of them are likely to live in built-up areas.

It would seem that you're the exception to the rule though. I used to live on an extremely busy road, a few doors down the road to a family who at one point owned in excess of fifteen cats.

They eventually gave up because the kids were constantly in floods of tears due to the regular and remorseless attrition (and presumably the vet bills too). I also vaguely recall an accident in which the driver of one car, in an attempt to avoid hitting a cat, speared into another car instead. Is owning such wilful and wayward pets in these circumstances really responsible or indeed kind to animals?

OllyK

OK, seems the thread lives to breath a little longer. Just a reminder, the original point for discussion was:
Should cat owners be legally responsible for thier pets actions?
Neither I, nor ajm or Telboy have or advocated abusing, killing or mis-treating a cat. We do have, we belive genuine grievances towards the damage that cats can do. We are not looking to take this out on the cat directly nor are we "cat haters", we are asking if cat owners will take responsibility for their pet's actions.

A reasonable number of cat owners have said that they would be prepared to do so, hats off to them. The issue remains that others will not take responsibility or seem to be in flat out denial that their cats go to the toilet on other people's property or cause damage.

So what can be done about (if anything) those who refuse to take a responsible attitude. Suggestions have been made, that have been rejected outright by some and accepted by others as to what can be done. There would still seem to be some scope to explore other avenues to resolve the issue. I don't know that making owners legally responsible would in itself be sufficient, as trying to catch a cat with acompanying evidence to submit in court would prove very difficult, which is why I suspect that there have been so few complaints to cat owners about the behaviour of their pets.

So what other humane options are available.

Many cats are tagged, could that technology be extended to identify a cat at a distance of a few metres to aid identification? Could there be a national register where the ID number could be entered so that people could then approach the owners to discuss their concerns??

I am not suggesting this is the ideal, but it could be an option. Do the cat owners have any suggestions in ways that cats could be identified in a humane manner so that they can be taken to task should their cat cause damage or loss??

Redkop

I am lucky that I live in a very quiet, rural village and at the end of the back garden is shrubland and fields. I have never seen my cat, in nearly 4 years, venture out onto the front. The neighbours one side have a dovecote and she has never been seen near that, nor to the next but one neighbours who have a huge aviary.