I hate cats/cat shit : (mykp.co.uk)

What, why do you hate cats mike?
Those lovable fluffy bundles of fluffyness?
Tame vermin more like!

Well, firstly I have a severe allergy to cats, especially fluffy cats, the fluffier the cat the worse my allergy. This allergy makes me itch, then, my eyes water and then I start to sneeze my head off. This continues for several hours after I´ve moved away from the cats or the house which they where in.

However an even bigger reason I hate them is nothing to do with my allergy but more to do with what the little bastards do and leave in my garden.

“CAT SHIT!”

If you have a cat, let me ask you a question. If I came into your garden night after night and let my dog leave little piles of shit scattered around your lawn and bedding plants, how would you feel. You´d report me to the police wouldn´t you, or what would you say if I bought a cat and let it shit in your back garden every night?

So all you cat lovers will be saying, “Well its nature isn´t it” or “There wild animals what can you do?” or even "My cats are so nice they dont do that"

Both of my neighbours have more than one cat and some of my others neighbours have one cat so we are in somewhat of a cat hotspot, and I am sick of cleaning cat shit out of my garden everyday.

Now what really annoys me even more is that if this was dog doing this I could take legal action against the owner of the dog, but because there is no legislation for cats I have to put up with it. Theres nothing worse than doing a bit of gardening and finding you´ve either put your hand in “Cat shit” or you´ve nearly put your hand in “Cat shit”

The most effective method I have found is water. A good soaking with the hose pipe usually stops a cat in its tracks but this involves sitting watching the garden all day!

Failing the above what can I do to stop cats coming into my garden? If I even say I´ll harm a cat I´ll have the Cat Protection League beating a path to my door, threatening me with Legal or physical pressure.

Talking to my neighbours about their cats, gets me the typical cat owner responses, see above, so their as likely to do anything about it as they are to clean up the shit their cats leave behind.

Its about time cat owners where made responsible for their pets as dog owners have been made to be. After all if you are responsible enough to buy a pet then you should be responsible enough to look after it and be responsible for your pets actions. What ever they maybe!

It has come to my attention by others who have had the same problem, and there are lots of people if the number of emails I get about this page alone are anything to go by. That your council wont do anything about this situation. Indeed if the amount of Cat shit in your garden becomes a problem and you dont deal with it, YOU, not the cat owners are liable for Prosecution on Health Grounds!

Its about time the law was changed to make cat owners more liable for their pets actions as dog owners have made to be..

Heres a typical Council response. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

Thank you for your Letter, addressed to *********, dated 3 May 2004, which has been forwarded to me for action.

Unfortunately, there are no laws or bye-laws under which we can take action against the owners of cats fouling in your garden. In fact, if it became a health issue, action would be taken against yourself to keep your garden clear of such faeces. Cats are considered to be "free spirits" and are unable to be restrained. They are excluded from the definitions of "livestock" under the Animals Act 1971 and cannot be held guilty of trespass under civil laws and their owners, therefore, cannot be liable for any damage caused. In any event, it would be extremely difficult to prove that a specific cat had produced any specific faeces.

The only exception where the local authority may take action would be if a single household kept a large number of cats (more than 12) whereby the premises could be considered to be a cattery or sanctuary or breeding establishment and would require planning consent. Under these circumstances, certain conditions may be applied in order to reduce the risk of the cats straying.

The only advice that we can offer is that cat repellant crystals may be bought from local hardware shops. A cheap deterrant is to place lemonade (or similar) bottles half filled with water (lying on their sides) at various places around your garden as the reflection from the water appears to act as a deterrant to cats.

I am sorry we are unable to assist you further with your problem.

Yours Some Council Person!

If you have something to say on this subject or if you think my views on cat are wrong then let me know by adding you comments at the bottom of the page. If there appropriate then they will be approved for other to see.

I get quite a few emails from people with suggestions about how to stop cats leaving sh!t in your garden, unfortunately most are unprintable but a few are helpful and I have included them below.

CDs in the garden From Vince
"this is actually the only thing that worked for me, get a cd or a few (any type but must be the reflective side facing towards) place on the ground in a few places facing the beasts (trial n error but i placed inline with my rosebeds adjusting the angles) they really do not like it,hope this helps let me know if this does...v man"

Wooden Meat Skewers from Maria
In the areas of garden you dont want cat scat put wodden meat skewers or sticks sticking upwards our of the ground. These are the type which are used for kebabs.

Update:
There are a few things I would like to add to this page as its been a while since it was last updated.

As this page is receiving a large number of hits, over 250,000 since March of 2008, it would seem that I am not the only one with this problem, it would also seem that there are a few cat lovers out there who deem it their mission in life to write abusive, even threatening emails to me. I will not tolerate this type of email or message on my message board and will report any offenders to the police who have already received and acted on two such emails. I have not made any threats of violence against cats on here, and if you, the people who have send threatening emails said the same thing in the street then would you not expect a reaction of some sort?

I have also had a few emails saying, "You own dogs, your dogs shit all over the place" not so! I always carry doggie bags and clean up after my dogs as I dont want my neighbourhood, town or countryside to be covered in dog shit, so I clean up after them. Plus I dont want a £1000 fine, something cat owners dont factor into the equation.

Since I originally wrote this one of my neighbours have moved "Yes the scum next door have gone and taken their four cats with them" My other next door neighbour now only has one cat, as one of them was sadly run over outside the house. So the amount of car shit in our garden has dramatically reduced and since we bought a dog its reduced to zero in the back garden, we get some occassionally in the front garden but its rare now.

I keep this page going as it helps others with the same problems and the comments below is a place for those to vent their anger. For those with cats who let them outside have some respect for your neighbours, I had somebody say "My cat doesnt go in my garden" well I dont know of any cats which spend their entire life not shitting at some point, so ask yourself where are they going to take a dump?

A few people have also mentioned to me the Petition which is running on the Downing street website and if you want to sign it then go ahead: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BanRoamingPets/

Looks great but I personally think that after the farce that was the congestion charge petition which Mr Blair effectively said "Thanks for signing" and then stuck two fingers up to everyone, I dont think anything on the downing street website will have any effect on any new policy. Sign it by all means but dont expect anything to happen.

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cat shit
I have cat shit all over my garden , you cant grow anything without the cats digging it up and shitting everywhere.I use the wooden skewers for kebabs and put them in my veg plot it does stop them. The other day one of the neighbours cats got run over and the poor soul chose my door to knock on looking for its owner, only to be met with a gleeful smile and a congratulations, well done and can you get the other one.................................

a big dog helps
get a dog , make sure it doesn´t like cats!!. the other thing cat owners seem to miss is the fact that all these cat destroy the bird life in your gardens!!, before say no they don´t, THEY DO!!, you just don´t see it!!, in the wild there wouldn´t be so many in such a small area , the problem they create wouldn´t happen!. i think cat owners are lazy pet owners!! thats why they get one, theres no need to walk them or clear up behind them, i can´t see any problem with being able to destroy them on YOUR property, effectively classing them as vermen!! cats carry lots of disease , another thing cat owner should realise, !! then you go into cat owners house and dirty disease ridden pest in walking on the kitchen work top !!!!, they pull a face when you decline a brew or a biscuit, !!!! DOH baby´s and young kids in a house with vermen called cats, not a good idea!!!!

cats, .....
cats are shit, not only do they crap everywhere, they are spiteful, annoying, and think they own the place, every cat i meet, tries to scratch , hiss e.t.c at me, i read a comment in another post about cats, where someone claimed that cats are the most evolved species to roam the planet, c´mon, do cats know how to bild a supercomputer or an atomic bomb, every time i try to befiend a catr, it turns around and gets all shitty, i hate cats, really do. i especialy hate cats fighting at 2 AM.......

I am a cat owner myself, BUT
I have one cat (not by choice, we are dog people really, but animal lovers all round so she gets very well looked after). We inherited her years ago and supply her with fresh litter for her to do her business in, however we live in a cat hot spot ourselves, never seen so many cats in one area, and they all must come into my garden to take a dump (before you think it, it´s not our cat as we have kept her in overnight and still next day the garden is full and I mean FULL of cat shit, at least 5 seperate ones on the lawn in the back garden and some in the flower beds and also 4 or 5 on the front garden), so sick and tired of it, tried all the cat off and pepper dust stuff and none of it works, we had a very expensive sonic cat repeller but someone kindly jumped into our garden in the dead of night and stole it, ripped it clean from its mounting (which was nice). We have a 20 month old grandaughter and she loves to play in the garden and we have had to stop her playing on the grassed area due to cat crap, we of course clean it up on a daily basis but we are not willing to take any chances. I know for a fact that none of the cat owners around here supply there animals with litter trays, this would help alot in the reduction of cat crap in our gardens, but will they do it, I think not, even if it were made law to provide such things it would be unenforceable. I used to have 2 dogs who are sadly not with us anymore, never had this problem when they were around. My dogs were very friendly with our cat and regarded her as part of the pack, but would not tolerate any others on our propery. Time for an all night vigil with the hosepipe, Iv´e heard they are not too keen on a midnight cold shower :o) cat needs a crap, so cat jumps into our garden, dog´s see cat,,,dogs chase cat, cat norrow escapes with it´s life (or not), either way cat never comes back..... woof

2 solutions
I´ve been down the route of lion dung, CDs, water bottles and crystals bla bla bla bla. I have found that the following works depending on your situation: cats don´t like s*****ing in enclosed spaces where they can´t see potential danger. My main problem area was a narrow gravelled path...you get the picture. High fence each side, but at each end there was an ironwork gate. By blocking off the lower part of the gates with an old sheet it enclosed the path. Not had a problem since. The other thing that has worked is creosote. Not the new weak stuff the original stinky thick stuff - you´ll probably find some in your dad´s garage. remove all cat crap first or it won´t work so well. Create a ""ring of confidence"" by daubing tops of fences with it. No fence? soak a rag and tie it to something. About half metre intervals seems to work. As soon as the smell starts to fade - reapply. Some in the bottom of an old tin can for low entry points like the gap at the bottom of a gate.

Lillies
Mrs sent me to the pet shop to buy some hay for her Rabbit and they had a rolling video in store about do´s and don t´s, re: cats, turns out that Lilly´s and Lilly pollen can be harmful if not deadly to cats..guess what I´m planting loads of next year?

i hate em
the cat s*** problem,i cured in the back garden with a ultrasonic device from maplins(£25).however in the front it wasn´t so simple because the said device would most probably be stolen from my front garden.Access is to easy and it flashes every time someone walks past it. Has anybody got a suggestion that will work,i´ve tried everything.The smell makes me vomit.There are so many of them as well.Help

Aussie Cat Solutions.
disolve 2 asprin in water, just a littel bit of water... about 100ml. Mix the solution into 1/2 a cup of full cream milk. Place it outside for the cats. They drink it and it gives them the hickups. They associate your place with hickups which they hate. They never come back and shit there again.

Cat Shit - what else!!
I am driving my kids mad with my recent rantings about ´cat shit´ in our garden. I used to adore cats but not any more..........I don´t see why i have to constantly fork out a small fortune for various things to deter cats which do not work. I am going to pen a letter to my MP suggesting that they do something about the amount of so called cat lovers, who seem to breeding them for profit. If you look in the local newspapers and see the increase in cats/kittens for sale, i think you will agree with me. These vermin are on the increase and something needs to be done. Yes cats are cute and cuddly but not so cute when you don´t own one and find yourself regularly having to clean their shit up from your garden. I thought cats covered there shit and was shocked when i first found some on my lawn. Shocked and annoyed as it was the day i was having several kids round for a garden party the celebrate my sons 7th birthday. I´m sure i don´t need to remind anyone of the dangers posed to expectant mothers and young children who come into contact with cat shit. Anyway - that´s enough ranting from me and i do feel i lot better for it. I´m now going to rant on to my MP and suggest that you all do the same :)J

mykp says:
Jackie, Good luck with your letter to your MP. I fear after reading emails from others who have gone down the same path you will not succeed. My MP wrote me a nice letter explaining the niceties of the law and politely told me to bog off. Perhaps if cats where crapping on the pavements outside schools it might be different, however if this where to happen I would wager money on cats not being blamed but dogs. Let me know if you get any further.

Support
Well done for taking a brave stand against the selfishness of cat owners. It may be natural for cats to hunt but it is not natural for them to be fed out of tins and given somewhere warm to sleep. There are no thrushes (and therefore a plague of snails) in our area because of cats. When a sole pair of robins tried to nest this year a gang of cats sat under the nest until it was abandoned. Cats routinely defecate in our garden creating a serious health menace. How can anyone possibly defend this? I have posted another petition, entitled ""against cats"", on the Downing Street website. Thank you very much, Stephen

I love kitties
I have 4 cats and they are very obidient and sweet. they don´t sh!t around the house and I keep them inside. cats are the ****ing best. Sorry about your allergy. If an animal was shitting in my yard, I´d beat it up.

I agree with everything that is posted on your website. I dont like cats! Cant see the point in having them as pets, all they do is leave cat hairs everywhere and shit in other people´s gardens. When I catch the littel sods doing it a hosing down is very satisfactory, but I think they´ve got wise to that and come back and shit even more when I´m not at home.

charge the cat owners
I have a sh*tty neighbor who has about 6 or 7 cats. I do not believe that this neighbor knows where their cats take a dump. They take a dump in my garden and my yard. I am literally sick of this neigbor and ther cats as well. Here is my drastic solution: The cat owners should give us money because we are spending time taking care of their cat shit. $10 for each dump. (labor money) If the cat owner is not going to bother training their cats or taking responsibility for them, then, they need to pay somehow. Or else, I am carrying the cat dump back to their yard.

hi there i have a foolproof humane way of stopping cats crapping in your garden. I am a long distance lorry driver and when someones cat keeps coming into my garden i befriend it then catch it and release it about a thousand miles away or as far as my next journey permits they say that cats are free spirits and can wander wherever they wish so i just help them a bit. it works very well so far

Oh lord!
I hate cats! I hate people who defend cats shitting in other peoples gardens.... private gardens! The law is totaly all wrong and should be changed. Is there a law refered to as the human rights act? where it states... ´the right to: respect and privacy for you family´

Cat owners who allow their animals to defecate freely do not have the inteligence to train them. The best solution that I read elsewhere on the net is to leave out some food containing cat laxative. The persistant offender takes the food, goes home to sleep it off, wakes up with an urgent need and evacuates on the best shagpile. Poetic justice? I think it was a tongue in cheek suggestion but highly amusing nevertheless.

Deterrent
I have the same problems with cats in my garden and the only effective deterrent I have found is to deny the little darlings access, spikey strips on flat surfaces and fern screening to heighten the fences. I have in the past tried other methods like coating the tops of fences and walls with grease (the dark stuff used on cars and M/cycles), I did find this most satisfying knowing that there was a good chance that the offending owner was spending the same amount of time cleaning carpet as I was cleaning up cat crap. I have tried darker methods but realise that it is not really the cats fault, the responsibility for control lies with the owner and frankly I would probably prefer to shoot them than the cat. It would be a good wheeze if all dog owners trained them to jump over garden fences and crap in cat owners gardens (in the dead of night of course), additionally pooing in a bag in the comfort of your own home and then chucking it over a cat owners fence (latex gloves recommended!) would take some of the frustration away, after all its all about how you feel at the end of the day and when something frustrates and stresses you out you need to seek some balance!!

Catlover
Oh please: this is twaddle. Cats are not like dogs and ""do"" what they want. Get over it you anally retentive dog owners.

mykp says:
Thanks for the comment, at least you didnt use abuse language like the majority of emails I get from cat owners, however alas the typical cat owner response!

cats mess
Hi, I must admit I quite like cats, and was thinking of getting one. But I am in two minds now! I do have a number of cats which are shitting in my garden and Im in the process of buying some equipment to deter them. I think its all about education1 For years we have just let our cats foul in other peoples gardens, and taken that couldnt care less attitude. But I think its about time the law was changed and if I do get cat I will make sure it is trained to do its business in the litter tray. Is it true that if you have a cat it will not shit in your garden, but will go off into someone esles ? Also if you have a cat, its keeps other cats from coming into your garden, so no shit all around!!! So if I buy a cat, I will not have to buy any cat repellants, because having a cat will solve all this, and then I will train my cat to do his business in the tray. The law has got to change to make cat owners more responsable. most cat owners must know that when their cat goes outside its going to shit in the neighbours garden!!! I was thinking of installing a device which takes a snapshot of the cat invaders, then posting them on the net, or local magazine to shame the owners into doing something about thier cats. Maybe a few posters on the Telegraph poles in the street, more shame. I think a name and shame of the owners sounds like a good idea, because its not the cats fault that they have not been trained to do their business at home. I am going to do a survey of all the cat owners in my area, and and try to find out what their thoughts are on this issue.

mykp says:
The law should definately change as cats can be trained to crap in a tray, thousands of owners have managed this successfully. However there is a majority of cat owners who are too stupid, too lazy or they lack the skills to train their animals therefore they just let them crap anywhere. I dont know about the, if you have a cat other cats wont come in your garden as ive never owned a cat!

mrs j.jefferson
i totally agree i dont let my dog shit in other peoples property just the other day i was harvesting our carrots which have took months to grow and not mention hard work only to find the whole veg patch coverd in cat shit they should be classed as vermon

There should be a law!
Fully agree as I have just picked up yet another load! There should be a law. After all we are plagued with blue bottles and we all know where they have just been. Why do we allow this in such a civilized country. Surely owners can train the animals to do their business in a tray in their homes!!! Also, what other animal kills for the fun of it? How can anyone like these creatures?

Make the cat owner resposible
Hi,im a garden contractor and cut lawns on a daily basis. Before we can cut 75% of the lawns we have to go round with the shovel to get the cat mess off. Not only is this unpleasant and hazardous its also costing me time and money. Its got worse over the years as almost every house has a cat as a pet.Im no blaming the cats but surely its time to change the law so to make the cat owner resposible. Andy Fisher Garden contracter