Cats should NOT be allowed to roam freely, they are not a natural predator and should be redefined as pest. They cause damage to property, spread disease and attack the indigenous wildlife.
If you have a cat, keep it indoors or within your own property. If you can't do that, then don't have a cat. Simple.
I'm not a cat lover and as I see it, they are the pet that gets inflicted on you by your neighbours. Some states in Australia insist on confined cats and my friend in the states has coyotes that would eat hers. People there still keep and love their cats.
So far, I've not lived next door to a neighbour who moved in with a dozen foxes (unlike cats!) and as a wildlife gardener you're fighting a battle with devastating densities of non-native predators who hunt with full a stomach in your much-more-interesting garden
If you want to get the cats/ foxes out of your garden or off your flowers, I use a two prong attack...pepper dust (readily available from any garden shop) and a sonic cat scarer, bit more expensive a gadget but it works for both cats and foxes !!! no more cat poop for me. I had a wonderful cat, which unfortunately died from cancer, but I was then subject to other cats trying to bash their way through his cat flap.... didnt realise they were all eating his food too!!! Then came the onslaught of cats pooing in my garden.
Balance has been restored now..... you can also get plastic fence topping which has soft spikes, which will stop the little dears from getting in your garden.
Perhaps the biggest menace is people! If we were not so densely populated most of the other animal inhabitants of this planet would not be a problem. Cats are not everyones cup of tea, but they do have uses - controlling vermin, amusing and de-stressing their owners. Oh dear, they catch birds. But that could be seen as a way of strengthening the remaining bird population, and some birds are pests! Our bird population is more affected by an over abundance of seagulls than by our local cats. Foxes are beautiful and clever animals, and I wonder what domestic dogs would be like if they were descended from foxes instead of wolves? Foxes and cats? When our old cat was in his prime he would sit by the bowl of food we put out for foxes and they would not come near until he moved away. Isaw this happen one night when there were 3 foxes waiting to eat. Now he is very sick, he does not sit by their food, but they never bother him in the garden. Perhaps the government should consider bringing in a licence for dogs and cats as an easy means of raising revenue to help bail out the banks?
re Uddy I agree humans are the most distructive force on the planet,we have the most to learn and nature is our teacher why do we make it so complicated !if only we would learn to work with and respect the wonders of nature that we are a part of !
I was never a Cat lover, until I had a wonderful Kitten who got ran over at 8 months old to the extent that I had to question if it was mine when I found her. How did she get run over? Like Uddy and Spring Has Srung have both said, by one of us, humans who see this planet as just ours to do just what we please with. Everything on this planet has a role to play, and a big one at that. Start taking the bits we don't like away and one day we will be taken away too, but not through choice, simply through man kinds silly need to be in control. Things happen that are not nice, annoying even, but it's all part of the way our planet works!
At last the blogs are being positive about our cats and foxes but it took a lot of moaning ones before they did. Strange how really interesting blogs about flowers and veg. only get a few contributers while the controversial ones get many! We once had 55 chickens and ducks, mostly rare-breeds, massacred by foxes, but when one injured his leg and holed up in our shed I fed and watered him for six weeks till he limped away. Years later he came back to my garden to die. We are part of nature and so are foxes, cats, plants(even so called weeds) and should be appreciated as such because they are part of the biodiversity which makes our world so wonderful.
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If you have a cat, keep it indoors or within your own property. If you can't do that, then don't have a cat. Simple.
So far, I've not lived next door to a neighbour who moved in with a dozen foxes (unlike cats!) and as a wildlife gardener you're fighting a battle with devastating densities of non-native predators who hunt with full a stomach in your much-more-interesting garden
I had a wonderful cat, which unfortunately died from cancer, but I was then subject to other cats trying to bash their way through his cat flap.... didnt realise they were all eating his food too!!! Then came the onslaught of cats pooing in my garden.
Balance has been restored now..... you can also get plastic fence topping which has soft spikes, which will stop the little dears from getting in your garden.
Cats are not everyones cup of tea, but they do have uses - controlling vermin, amusing and de-stressing their owners.
Oh dear, they catch birds. But that could be seen as a way of strengthening the remaining bird population, and some birds are pests! Our bird population is more affected by an over abundance of seagulls than by our local cats.
Foxes are beautiful and clever animals, and I wonder what domestic dogs would be like if they were descended from foxes instead of wolves?
Foxes and cats? When our old cat was in his prime he would sit by the bowl of food we put out for foxes and they would not come near until he moved away. Isaw this happen one night when there were 3 foxes waiting to eat.
Now he is very sick, he does not sit by their food, but they never bother him in the garden.
Perhaps the government should consider bringing in a licence for dogs and cats as an easy means of raising revenue to help bail out the banks?