Why Can't We Have Ordinances to Control Cats? Please?

[dainerra]

Quote:
actually, most laws DO cover any behavior that causes injury. For example, if your dog chases a horse and the horse breaks his leg while running away, then the dog owner is liable even though the dog never touched the horse. Now, if the dog just happened to be walking by and the horse spooked without the dog even looking at it, you get into a "he said/she said" grey area that would probably be decided by a judge.
I think that the balance of history would be on her side. Her birds are contained and the cat's owners have been told many times that the cat is trying to get into the pens. We're not talking about an accident where the cat saw a nice sunny spot to take a nap and fell through a loose panel. This cat has a proven history of trying to get through the wire

Also, no one is saying it should be the law to keep your cat indoors. It IS basic common sense that if you own an animal, you should take measures to insure that it stays on its own property. How many times do we come here complaining about people who move from the city and think "Great! Fido can run free!" Why the double standard?

My old neighbor actually had the nerve to complain about my dogs chasing her cat. UMMM her cat was inside my fenced back yard.

 

[maybejoey]

I dont know if it works but i read that you can get old dried up tea bags and spray them with any type of motor spray and set them around a garden or a coop. The smell hurts cats noses and makes them leave. Have no idea if it works, because we dont have any cats around where i live. But i thought that it might be useful. The tea bags have to be replaced every week.

 

[PulletSurpriseWinner]

Pele[/quote :


Please don't make unkind generalizations, it tends to overshadow the of the rest of what you wrote.

I personally am a very responsible cat owner who takes pride in maintaining my cats. I have them all spayed, keep them healthy with regular vet visits, and never let them roam outside. It saddens me that you have such a hateful view of me just because I like a certain animal, and without having even met me.

Pele,

I don't hate you, or any cat lovers. I despise "house" cats because it's in their nature to kill with no real need. And my dealings with cat lovers of late amount to the general consensus that they're right and I'm wrong because they all love cats and I don't. It wears on my nerves.

We keep two cats, actually. Both are fixed and have regular veterinary checkups. One cat for my son, one we got for him that decided for whatever reason that she likes me. Kiki is ten years old and I love her very much. Neither of our cats is an outdoor cat or ever will be. We keep them in for their own good and that of all the small, killable creatures that we live among. I feel everyone should keep cats inside for the same reasons and if you haven't enough room for them inside, don't have a cat.

If I'm offending you, I am sorry. I'm not a diplomat, or tactful, and unfortunately I can be too direct, and/or candid.

-Dave- "PulletSurpriseWinner"​

 

[Pele]

Quote:
Pele,

I don't hate you, or any cat lovers. I despise "house" cats because it's in their nature to kill with no real need. And my dealings with cat lovers of late amount to the general consensus that they're right and I'm wrong because they all love cats and I don't. It wears on my nerves.

We keep two cats, actually. Both are fixed and have regular veterinary checkups. One cat for my son, one we got for him that decided for whatever reason that she likes me. Kiki is ten years old and I love her very much. Neither of our cats is an outdoor cat or ever will be. We keep them in for their own good and that of all the small, killable creatures that we live among. I feel everyone should keep cats inside for the same reasons and if you haven't enough room for them inside, don't have a cat.

If I'm offending you, I am sorry. I'm not a diplomat, or tactful, and unfortunately I can be too direct, and/or candid.

-Dave- "PulletSurpriseWinner"

Thank you for elaborating, I was bummed because I know there are people out there who think unkind things about people (especially women) who keeps cats. I feel like I have a scarlet 'CL' for Cat Lady on my forehead sometimes! I'm glad to hear that you take pride in your pets, and have experienced the companionship of indoor felines. I personally think they're the best lap-warmers in creation. No other animal mimics a blanket on your legs better than a cat pretending to be boneless.

And MaybeJoey, I think you are on to something! I can't believe I didn't think of it myself since I use some horrid smelling stuff in my yard to deter my neighbor's dogs from digging at the fence to get my birds. It's mainly based on Cayenne pepper, but it has some other stuff in it that makes my stomach turn. Maybe the OP can try some smelly stuff on the property to deter cats.

 

[bertman]

Quote:
I am curious, and am not trying to bait you. For dogs, we must either fence or leash our pets so that they cannot leave our property and run 'at large', possibly damaging the property of others and harassing wildlife. I know a cat is not a dog, however I have read many, many successful stories of people creating outdoor enclosures for their cats to enjoy time outside, or doing some simple leash training. While I agree it is one thing to have a farm cat that stays on your property and helps with rodent control, I suspect the vast majority of loose pet cats are not farm cats.

So: For pet cats that are not needed for their utility (hunting rodent populations, especially in farm situations), why not find a way to safely keep them in your yard if you want to grant outdoor time (the same way dogs and livestock must be kept on one's property)? I am not talking about individual cases of "My cat would never tolerate that!" (which, by the way, after working with training animals for some time-- most of them not even domesticated-- I think is sometimes a lazy response), but in general...

Nambroth, we have a fairly large piece of property for a city lot--over three acres. We have several close-by neighbors and a couple that are pretty far off through the trees. We know that our cats go to the next door neighbor's house because she used to feed them until we asked her not to. They have two indoor kitties because they are afraid to let them out due to a major thoroughfare that passes in front of our houses. In the twenty years we have had our cats here--two who are now in kitty heaven (or wherever sweet dead cats go) plus the two we now have (one twelve and one eight)--I have only seen the our neutered male cross the road once. The neutered female, never. They do roam our property freely and probably visit the other neighbors on occasion, but those neighbors have dogs so our cats don't care to frequent those houses.

If my neighbor were upset about the cat--for whatever reason--I would figure out a way to keep the cat off her property. But until I get a complaint my cats will be outdoor/indoor cats and I will be their devoted doorman and food-bowl filler.

My DW has been upset several times when our cat(s) have brought home a squirrel or bunny or songbird they have caught. She was angry because she imagined that the squirrels/bunnies/songbirds were all in mortal danger. The next day I counted nine big, fat, healthy, adult squirrels in or around our house and that didn't include looking in the trees farther down in the wooded areas. Now, years later, there are even more. As I said, the songbirds are prolific in our yard. We keep them well fed and watered and we have even set up a special, protective wire enclosure when wrens stupidly built nests on a window AC unit on our carport that was within easy reach of our cats. We watched the babies hatch out inside the enclosure, then fledge, then leave the nest with mom and dad for cover in some dense brush, then on to their next home.

We have a fox vixen and kits under the storage building next door, possums, deer herds, coyote within a half mile, and we have even thought we heard a bobcat a couple of times in our immediate vicinity. We have red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, crows, black vultures, and barred owls as well as the occasional great horned owl that live in the trees nearby. None of these predators have managed to stunt the wildlife population around our home.

I love wildlife as much as my wife does. But I see my cats as being predators just like I am. We're all part of the ecosystem just like the birds and bunnies that feed the carnivores. Our cats kill a wild animal occasionally and eat it. I do the same. Neither of us is wanton about it. We are not endangering the wildlife around us. The cats and I do most of our foraging indoors based on what comes from the supermarket. (If the economy gets much worse we might all be doing more of the wildlife stalking.) My cat might get run over on the road just like I might get slammed into by another driver. That's life. At least we're all getting to spend a good portion of our time in the beautiful outdoors. As long as neither of us is creating problems for our neighbors I see no harm in it.

Just my warped, free-roaming-cat owner perspective on this.

Thanks for asking.

 

[nzpouter]

Quote:
I have to disagree... some idiots are just too thick to value the life of their animals.... plus a new kitten is cuter till they grow older... some will only understand after it hits them in the pocket...

 

[janinepeters]

bertman wrote:

MuckyPuppy, my wildlife rehabber wife is not what you would call thrilled that our cats are outdoor cats when they do bring in a victim, but we are not about to have ANY animal as a pet that cannot enjoy the outdoors.

I agree with Bertman. We give our cats some outdoor time, too. Only during the daytime when we are home. They are vaccinated and routinely treated for parasites. Other cats in the neighborhood roam, too. Other peoples' cats sometimes wander into my yard. No one here has ever complained about anyone else's cat, to my knowledge. I understand some people my view them as a nuisance, and I am well aware they may have a significant impact on song bird populations. But I still let them out. Why? They are much happier. Plain and simply. We humans domesticated them, and we use them as mousers for our own benefit. Therefore I don't believe we should deprive them of something they so obviously value, when the root of both problems: both the "nuisance" issue and the declining songbirds, is HUMAN POPULATION, not cats. I have had indoor only cats, and I do not believe they were nearly as happy as those with some outdoor access. I even have an enclosure now, because I do not allow my cats to roam all the time.

For an interesting take on the indoor/outdoor issue, read:
"The Cat Who Cried for Help" by Dr. Nicholas Dodman​

 

[Jetiki]

I have used a paintball gun as a non lethal feral kitty deterrent paint balls are also non toxic and the stuff will come off. I had a whole colony of feral move into an old greenhouse on a property I had. There were well over 20 cats. Only had to shoot at them a couple of times maybe like 5 hit 2 and they left and didn't come back. this was before I had chickens. I currently have 4 cats and I have bantams and standard birds. The bantams no matter if their wings are clipped or not tend to get out, each time I figure out where they are getting out they find a new hole darn birds. I have not lost even 1 chick or bird to my or my neighbors cats. My hens are quite funny if I cat looks cross eyed at the birds the cat will get surrounded and picked on by the hens until the cat decides that they don't like that. I really needed this on video, 2 hens got the attention of said cat he was about 6 months old and fixed. 3 other hens came up behind the cat he was surrounded they squawked and pecked his tail he jumped and the hens in the front pecked his head. Now he walks past the chickens and merely looks around and keeps on walking. If a mouse gets in the chicken pen the mouse is fair game but the birds usually get it first. I have a couple of Banty hens that can get really cranky about their babies. I leave them with them they aren't very tame due to hen crankiness but nothing gets those babies and I have plenty of places for them to hide from daytime predators and they go in the coop at night. My birds have gotten used to the cats being around. Try a paint ball gun and if that doesn't deter them then trap them. I only have one neighbor that doesn't care for animals and my cats don't go over there. They go mainly on my property ( I live at the end of a 1/4 mile driveway) I have several outbuildings that they like to peruse through the day. since I am home most of the time they come in and out as they please, they ask to go out by sitting at the door and they ask to come in by bumping the outside door. One does get a song bird every once in a while but its mainly bunnies and mice.


Karen

 

[southerndesert]

I read the attitude of some of you cat owners and it just makes me shake my head....

Where do you get the idea that a cat should have the right to run free when you yourselves will flip out over someones dog being lose chasing your free cat?

What is the deal? Must one sign an oath of irresponsibility and selfishness to own a cat?

This is not in any way directed at all cat owners as many take it seriously and keep their pet inside or restrained, but the rest and many that have posted in this thread are....just....well....heck I got no words other than selfish, and YOU are the problem and it just may cost your beloved, longing to roam, pet its life.

Get a grip people and if you want to call me a jerk for this post give me some real good reasons I should have to deal with your pet on my property while I take every effort to be sure you do not have to deal with my animals on yours.

It will have to be better than wringing your hands and saying "they just must be free to roam"

 

[auto5man]

Get yourself a Daisy RedRyder BB gun and use it, not powerful enough to hurt the cat but will leave an impression (psychological). Cats are sensitive to negative stimuli and will learn that lesson quickly. All it would take is one or two times getting plinked in the hind quarters and just hearing the BB's rattle in the barrel would send them running after that.