I'm with you Tootles. I keep my cat in at night and find that she (and all our previous cats) mainly stay in our own garden and generally don't hunt. I understand that most wildlife are caught at dusk and dawn and my cat is in at those times.
She only goes on her litter, inside, or in our own garden. If I knew of her going elsewhere I would go and clean it up.
As Tootles says, all pets (and children for that matter) come with their negatives, so lets please live and let live.
We changed the time of day we fed our two cats so that they aren't hungry and less likely to hunt. We put collars on them with bells but they never last long - someone keeps taking them off. We keep them in, in fact we encourage them to stay inside. I do think its easy to forget how much of a vermin problem we would have if we didn't have them.
My neighbours throw stones at the cats in the neighbourhood and sometimes the cats come in with cuts, swellings, swollen eyes. They also use lasers but right in the cats eyes. I would have no problem with them using water pistols or similar but if I catch them throwing stones I will report them to the RSPCA for cruelty. If you use stones, catapults or anything that harms the cat then you leave yourself liable to prosecution.
I abhor the aggression that is displayed here. Perhaps it isn't intentional, but it really is unnecessary. With so many contradictions and nonsensical comments there is absolutely no point in responding with anything other than a gentle request to plead for folk to please try and be nicer to all who share this little planet of ours. You'll feel better for it, honest!
I can see both sides of this issue, gardening is my passion and I have five cats. My cats are all neutered and don't go out at night and thankfully they leave the frogs and toads in my garden alone, one of them used to catch them when she was young but they'd let out such a horrific scream we always knew and she'd drop them unharmed when we shouted at her. I've tried everything to keep them off the garden especially beds that have just been dug over and/or seeded and the best way I've found is to to put in lots of short sticks about 5" apart, the cat then can't sit down to do it's business, you can take the sticks out when the plants are established. It is worrying how many strays and un-neutered cats there are, three of mine were unwanted or abandoned.
Last winter I had many many birds at the feeders and several mice in the garden as a whole. 30+ house sparrows used to ground feed on seed around the garden and I always had a good few blackbirds dotted about the garden.
This winter, a bird at the feeders is rare and unusual, I have very few blackbirds and no sparrows.
Last winter I spend just short of £80 on feed, this year I have spend less than £20 so far and I'm going to be left much of it the way things are going. I thought at first that the cause was a relatively mild winter and an abundance of natural food.
It wasn't until a week or so ago that I found out why, I now have at least 4 cats visiting the garden on a regular basis.
I've always believed for years though that ALL pets / domestic animals should be mandatorily licenced, electronically tagged and insured and before anybody can have a domestic animal they should first attend a mandatory college course and obtain a certificate to prove the course was completed which must list the animals and breeds that the bearer is allowed to keep and look after. The course should establish if the person(s) are fit and able to have an animal, if the property that the person lives at is a suitable property to house an animal.
Animals capable of inflicting injury should be mandatorily muzzled at all times including the home.
Any domestic animal outdoors at any time unattended should be caught, if untagged it should be destroyed, if tagged the owner fined at least £100 plus costs incurred.
Farmers, I believe have a right to shoot dogs harassing livestock, should we have the right to shoot a domestic animal (cats) trespassing and unattended in our gardens causing damage, death to our wildlife and general disruption!?
Perhaps cats should wear "Cat Nappies" after all this can't be cruel because we apply Nappies to our own children for the first few years of their lives.
A muzzle should be worn by any animal that can inflict injury or death to any other creature or person including dogs and cats, I'm sure there are other pets and animals too.
Yes you have opinions we all have, but you must be a very foolish man if you think you can post your opinions and hope to stand any chance of having even a tiny grown up discussion on a forum where there will be many passionate cat owners / animal lovers who think the human race a disgrace and will be ready and waiting to jump down your throat.
I respectfully advise YOU ALL bite your tongue on this thread so that we can ALL let it die a dignified death. Don't feed those fishing for arguments with your passionate posts - your enthusiasm is being very poorly placed as I am sure we have several members who get great pleasure in keeping threads alive purely to see how much trouble they can cause.
This thread is going no where. We will not achieve an outcome - the original poster has not been back to the forum as far as I'm aware. Lets be sensible, close it down and move on to better things.
Posts
I'm with you Tootles. I keep my cat in at night and find that she (and all our previous cats) mainly stay in our own garden and generally don't hunt. I understand that most wildlife are caught at dusk and dawn and my cat is in at those times.
She only goes on her litter, inside, or in our own garden. If I knew of her going elsewhere I would go and clean it up.
As Tootles says, all pets (and children for that matter) come with their negatives, so lets please live and let live.
We changed the time of day we fed our two cats so that they aren't hungry and less likely to hunt. We put collars on them with bells but they never last long - someone keeps taking them off. We keep them in, in fact we encourage them to stay inside. I do think its easy to forget how much of a vermin problem we would have if we didn't have them.
My neighbours throw stones at the cats in the neighbourhood and sometimes the cats come in with cuts, swellings, swollen eyes. They also use lasers but right in the cats eyes. I would have no problem with them using water pistols or similar but if I catch them throwing stones I will report them to the RSPCA for cruelty. If you use stones, catapults or anything that harms the cat then you leave yourself liable to prosecution.
I cant believe people would be so cruel as to use catapults or stones, I'm shocked.
I abhor the aggression that is displayed here. Perhaps it isn't intentional, but it really is unnecessary. With so many contradictions and nonsensical comments there is absolutely no point in responding with anything other than a gentle request to plead for folk to please try and be nicer to all who share this little planet of ours. You'll feel better for it, honest!
I'll say no more.
Over and out from me on this thread X
I can see both sides of this issue, gardening is my passion and I have five cats. My cats are all neutered and don't go out at night and thankfully they leave the frogs and toads in my garden alone, one of them used to catch them when she was young but they'd let out such a horrific scream we always knew and she'd drop them unharmed when we shouted at her. I've tried everything to keep them off the garden especially beds that have just been dug over and/or seeded and the best way I've found is to to put in lots of short sticks about 5" apart, the cat then can't sit down to do it's business, you can take the sticks out when the plants are established. It is worrying how many strays and un-neutered cats there are, three of mine were unwanted or abandoned.
Last winter I had many many birds at the feeders and several mice in the garden as a whole. 30+ house sparrows used to ground feed on seed around the garden and I always had a good few blackbirds dotted about the garden.
This winter, a bird at the feeders is rare and unusual, I have very few blackbirds and no sparrows.
Last winter I spend just short of £80 on feed, this year I have spend less than £20 so far and I'm going to be left much of it the way things are going. I thought at first that the cause was a relatively mild winter and an abundance of natural food.
It wasn't until a week or so ago that I found out why, I now have at least 4 cats visiting the garden on a regular basis.
I've always believed for years though that ALL pets / domestic animals should be mandatorily licenced, electronically tagged and insured and before anybody can have a domestic animal they should first attend a mandatory college course and obtain a certificate to prove the course was completed which must list the animals and breeds that the bearer is allowed to keep and look after. The course should establish if the person(s) are fit and able to have an animal, if the property that the person lives at is a suitable property to house an animal.
Animals capable of inflicting injury should be mandatorily muzzled at all times including the home.
Any domestic animal outdoors at any time unattended should be caught, if untagged it should be destroyed, if tagged the owner fined at least £100 plus costs incurred.
Farmers, I believe have a right to shoot dogs harassing livestock, should we have the right to shoot a domestic animal (cats) trespassing and unattended in our gardens causing damage, death to our wildlife and general disruption!?
Should cats permanently wear Muzzles and a chastity belt that covers and restricts the animals complete rear end!?
When the cat goes home it can then be fed at one end and cleaned up at the other by the owner!
Perhaps cats should wear "Cat Nappies" after all this can't be cruel because we apply Nappies to our own children for the first few years of their lives.
A muzzle should be worn by any animal that can inflict injury or death to any other creature or person including dogs and cats, I'm sure there are other pets and animals too.
If anyone needs to be muzzled, I think it should be you, Mark Feather!
Oh Mark
Yes you have opinions we all have, but you must be a very foolish man if you think you can post your opinions and hope to stand any chance of having even a tiny grown up discussion on a forum where there will be many passionate cat owners / animal lovers who think the human race a disgrace and will be ready and waiting to jump down your throat.
I respectfully advise YOU ALL bite your tongue on this thread so that we can ALL let it die a dignified death. Don't feed those fishing for arguments with your passionate posts - your enthusiasm is being very poorly placed as I am sure we have several members who get great pleasure in keeping threads alive purely to see how much trouble they can cause.
This thread is going no where. We will not achieve an outcome - the original poster has not been back to the forum as far as I'm aware. Lets be sensible, close it down and move on to better things.