SO mad! Darn Neighbor's Cats!

[annaraven]

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Great ideas!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

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annaraven - So, it's okay for my neighbor's cat to kill my pets but not okay for me to protect them? i have no desire to hurt any living creature. Have never harmed or killed anything in my life other than mice and rats. But honestly, i can't predict what i might do if i found one of my beloved pets being mauled by any creature.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Lot's of good suggestions. i like the idea of shooting it with something stinky or paint. Although those paint guns pack quite a sting. Wonder if i could get some kind of stinky liquid (coyote urine or whatnot) and add some type of coloration to it, and load it into a super shooter water gun. That way she would know for sure her cat was the one in my yard.

Getting a dog isn't an option for me. i'm just not up to adding another animal right now, and dogs need a lot of care. i'll need to ponder if running hot wire along that one fence line would work. The cat seems to come over one particular fence all the time. There are a lot of large bushes and trees pushing up against that fence, so it might be difficult.

i am just amazed that my neighbor's first reaction was not to ask if my ducks were okay, but to try to blame it on another cat. Then to talk about how upset she was that i threatened her cat. But she wasn't too upset to even put her cat inside for a moment, as it was back in my yard immediately. Then tonight as i was dumping coop shavings into our green can, her boyfriend was out in his yard glaring at me. Hey buddy, man-up and come talk to me to my face. It's your cat that attacked my pets, not the other way around. (so there!)

 

[purr]

sorry but I think if the cat actually caught one of the ducks or chickens it would be sorry. Do you have a rooster cause usually that would be enough of a deterrent.
i'm actually thinking about getting a barn cat

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Stop shooing & start shooTing. Sounds like a .12 ga. is in order! I will protect my flock with whatever it takes. just shooing means....."go away.....until later" Shooting means....."go away....you messed with my flock for the LAST time"

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I think, oddly enough, that there are laws that say you cannot shoot dogs/cats with pellet guns, BB guns or paint ball guns as it is considered animal cruelty. It apparently is legal in most places to shoot to kill an animal that is endangering your livestock. So yes, you can kill it, but you can't just warn it off. Before hitting it with pellets/BBs/paint balls I would check out the local laws first.
That's why I suggested the water gun with stinky in it. Your idea of adding dye is great. I'd pick out the most obnoxious hair dye (hot pink?) that I could find and mix it in with the stinkiest thing the hunting store had. A super soaker is going to have a decent range, so you have a better bet of hitting it. The neighbor would know that the cat had been where it is not supposed to be AND would have to deal with a stinky cat. I'd give her two strikes. Strike three and the cat is going off to the shelter. It sounds like you live in a residential area so probably shooting the cat would be illegal as well.

Good luck. I'm sorry your birds are being harrassed.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

I have same problem my neighbors have about 6 cats and then all the other feral cats show up. The cats have killed my quail, many of my chicks that are hatched under free range hens and they also killed all my show girls I used a catch a live trap and caught several cats and took care of problem for awhile but now there are bunch more since the cats had kittens. I guess time get trap out again.

 

[NellaBean]

yes, I would be cautious about shooting it without first checking the laws for your area. I would however, call your animal control adn see what they say. You may want to just start leaving a live animal trap out at night when your "fowl" is kept locked up. Catch the cat and send it to the shelter. You have the right to remove a nuisance from your property. You don't necessarily have the right to injure, maim or kill it, OR to take it somewhere and dump it or to a shelter out of the area. It does get expensive for multiple impounds, so I would probably just set the trap out with food in it and then send it to the shelter. Kind of hard for them to argue that its not their cat when their cat gets trapped in the middle of your property.

On a sidenote, when my birds were young a cat started hanging around.......I was worried about it as they were small. Now that I have a bunch of larger birds, I am less concerned. Haven't seen a cat in the daytime hours in ages.....Do your drakes not try to chase them away? My drake is bossy and even runs off roosters.....

I might also put some sort of DYED something inthe bottom of the trap. Let that cat get nice and disgusting while its over. Run a little food dye soaked water over its feet and belly.....you're not hurting it, just tell them you put the dye down in your duck area so you could "mark" the cat and make sure you weren't accidently accusing the wrong owner.

 

[wildeflowers]

i'm not sure our talking did any good. She was very upset that i said i would use a pellet gun on her cat, as she loves her cat very much. Hey, i love my ducks very much, too. i told her i wouldn't harm her cat, i was just angry. But that we need to find a resolution to this problem, as i'm tired of chasing her cat(s) out of my yard a hundred times a day, and i don't want harm to come to MY pets.

what the freak. If she loves her cat so much, keep it out of your yard. Problem solved.

I just don't get people who think it's ok to let their cats roam all over the place and terrorize other people's livestock (as well as kill wildlife). I posted about my neighbor's cat the other day. They have a problem with chickens (from the other neighbor) being on their lawn, but let their cat run all over the place. I am fairly certain I lost a youngster to this cat already.

It's not her job to spend money, put up fences or electrical wire to keep someone else's pet out of her yard. Wild predators, yes. A domestic cat, no. Yeah, some cats want to roam. If those cats live at my house, too bad for them.

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LOL, not this is a great idea. I may use it myself.​

 

[annaraven]

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annaraven - So, it's okay for my neighbor's cat to kill my pets but not okay for me to protect them? i have no desire to hurt any living creature. Have never harmed or killed anything in my life other than mice and rats. But honestly, i can't predict what i might do if i found one of my beloved pets being mauled by any creature.

I did not say it was okay for the cat to kill your pets. But so far, you have not indicated that it has. I was suggesting ways for you to protect your pets that would be more generally effective than shooting a neighbor's pet that has not yet harmed them. I understand your concern - I'm glad you're trying to figure out how to protect them before anything happens. I just don't think that shooting the cat is either warranted or effective.