Welcome to the forum Do you care enough about your neighbours to keep your cats off their properties if they don't want them there? Caring work both ways after all.
How do you do that then? Tell them not to go next door?
Yes, keeping animals inside which want to be outside does them a a lot of good
How many pets do you think want to be inside? Yet my neighbourhood isn't full of free roaming dogs or any other pets except cats (and some sheep). The argument that cats need to roam other peoples' properties has never been valid to anyone but lazy cat owners. Plenty of cat owners manage to keep cats as indoor only pets or provide them with an enclosed outdoor space without any negative health problems. If people think this is cruel then they don't have to own a cat.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Amen. Until owners have a legal duty of care for their cats and their consquences, act as if owners have a legal duty of care for their cats and their consquences. Dogs cannot come on to my property and shit and kill anything they fancy. Cats are no different.
We have loads of cats come into my garden. They are most welcome, beautiful things. They also keep down the rat population, a service I value very highly.
We have loads of cats come into my garden. They are most welcome, beautiful things. They also keep down the rat population, a service I value very highly.
This doesn't invalidate the opinion of people who don't want cats in their garden though. Rat populations are artificially high because of poor bird feeding practices. Bird feeding is popular because bird populations have been suffering and bird populations have been suffering because of the high numbers of cats. Cats removing a large number of the weaker prey animals in a population reduces the available food for natural predators and keeps their numbers lower which in turn leads to a greater number of pests like rats. Is a reduced rat population worth the impacts that cats cause on populations of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects and amphibians?
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Yes, keeping animals inside which want to be outside does them a a lot of good
How many pets do you think want to be inside? Yet my neighbourhood isn't full of free roaming dogs or any other pets except cats (and some sheep). The argument that cats need to roam other peoples' properties has never been valid to anyone but lazy cat owners. Plenty of cat owners manage to keep cats as indoor only pets or provide them with an enclosed outdoor space without any negative health problems. If people think this is cruel then they don't have to own a cat.
It's a stupid question as there is no answer to it. Unless someone has done a poll or a survey on it? I'll let you try and find an answer to that if you can, but it's 'quite a lot' when it suits them. You don't seem to understand animals at all, maybe you've never owned any.
You're trying to group all cats together and seem to think a cat is like a dog. I can assure you that cats are very different to dogs in their needs and habits and one cat is not like another. They're like humans in that one can be very different to another and have different needs. FYI: You can train a dog, you generally can't train a cat. Dogs can and do attack people, cats generally do not. There are outside cats, inside cats, inside and out cats and every type in between. You generally don't get to choose just like you can't choose what kind of person you give birth to. If you force an outside cat to be constantly inside it will be a miserable existence for it. Many animals, just like humans change their habits as they get older.
For reference, our old cat:
Has a cat flap so comes and goes as she pleases, this is how a cat (and a dog in some cases) should be treated. In Winter she doesn't go out at all, in Summer she does if the weather is fine. She generally doesn't go far, but has been spotted innocently sitting in long grass next door. She doesn't hunt any more, but used to when young. She comes indoors to use her toilet and does not do it outside.
Back in the day, we had one farm cat (neutered) who kept the rats down in the farmyard and buildings, including granaries, three large chicken sheds, pig sties, straw barns etc .
He lived in the house with us and was fed twice a day, and still kept the rat population down ... he didn't have time to roam the hedges and woodlands, and was kept away from the ducklings etc by the gander who guarded the farm pond, veg garden and orchard. The whole area he patrolled must've been around 5 acres.
Compare that to the numberof cats that live within a hundred yards of this house ... I love (some) cats ... but there are far too many of them, particularly in the suburbs and some of the larger rural villages.
We don't have a cat ... and we gently shooosh visiting cats back over the fences when we see them.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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You don't seem to understand animals at all, maybe you've never owned any.
You're trying to group all cats together and seem to think a cat is like a dog. I can assure you that cats are very different to dogs in their needs and habits and one cat is not like another. They're like humans in that one can be very different to another and have different needs.
FYI:
You can train a dog, you generally can't train a cat.
Dogs can and do attack people, cats generally do not.
There are outside cats, inside cats, inside and out cats and every type in between. You generally don't get to choose just like you can't choose what kind of person you give birth to.
If you force an outside cat to be constantly inside it will be a miserable existence for it.
Many animals, just like humans change their habits as they get older.
For reference, our old cat:
Has a cat flap so comes and goes as she pleases, this is how a cat (and a dog in some cases) should be treated. In Winter she doesn't go out at all, in Summer she does if the weather is fine.
She generally doesn't go far, but has been spotted innocently sitting in long grass next door.
She doesn't hunt any more, but used to when young.
She comes indoors to use her toilet and does not do it outside.
He lived in the house with us and was fed twice a day, and still kept the rat population down ... he didn't have time to roam the hedges and woodlands, and was kept away from the ducklings etc by the gander who guarded the farm pond, veg garden and orchard. The whole area he patrolled must've been around 5 acres.
Compare that to the numberof cats that live within a hundred yards of this house ... I love (some) cats ... but there are far too many of them, particularly in the suburbs and some of the larger rural villages.
We don't have a cat ... and we gently shooosh visiting cats back over the fences when we see them.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.