When the neighbors dogs run around and drop their latest meal on someone's lawn, people are up in arms. Laws are passed requiring dogs be on leashes at all times in the city of Houston. Cats run around the hold neighborhood, sleep on lawn furniture leaving their dander everywhere, droppings, kill birds in your yard, scratch people, antagonize your dog, etc. and what do people say? That's just cats being cats. At my old house I didn't hesitate to trap cats just like I trapped raccoons and possums that were antagonizing my animals and tearing up my garbage. Set a trap, catch the b*stard and call animal control. Then it's in their hands.
That is a totally appropriate response. Poisoning them, as was suggested earlier, is not an appropriate response..
If you read the whole thread that was the gist of the conversation for the most part. The poison bit and antifreeze was talked about, but not really considered, at least by me. Inside of this hard internet persona lies a heart of gold, or at least copper. DD
My wife and me lament the fact that we hardly have any birds in our big backyard as there are like 4 outdoor cats that are constantly "hanging out" on my property - killing the few birds that come along as soon as they see them. Not only do they do that but they also get our 2 dogs riled up every time they see them outside. I have never cared for cats but to each his own, I guess. However, just makes a valid point. People get upset with dogs pooping in their yards but most people look the other way with cats.
Dogs are roaming pack animals. In nature, they don't mind craping wherever, because they range over a wide area and so don't care who finds it, as they won't be back before it has decomposed. Cats are both teritorial and solitary. They try to bury or hide their poop instead of leaving a big steamer in the middle of the sidewalk. It is a genetic predisposition. It helps disguise them from predators. This is why cats know how to use a litter box without being told. This difference results in a different distribution of poop in your yard, which corespondingly reduces your chance of steping in cat poop by an exponential factor, unless you walk in really bizare places.
I am a huge animal lover, more so with dogs than cats, but would never wish harm on any of them. It infuriates me to see cats roaming outside. They're all over my apartment complex. I cannot understand why someone would want to put an animal that they supposedly love and care about outdoors with all of the dangers that come with that. Have you not seen how people in Houston drive??? How does it not make them crazy worried when they don't know where their pet even is? I totally agree with the people who say if you want your cat to be able to enjoy the outdoors to get a leash or an electronic fencing system. God, at least put a damn collar on them in case they get lost or hurt! Can we at least be that responsible? Like I already stated, I live in an apartment on the 2nd story, and the next door neighbor's balcony is really close to mine. My former neighbors had 2 kittens that they would leave on their balcony, and these cats would ALL THE TIME crawl over to our balcony and hang out. They were on our balcony more than they were at theirs. It was an awful situation. The cats even FELL a couple of times and hit the ground. It's amazing they never got hurt, and that didn't even stop them from putting their cats out there. We sometimes would try knocking on their door to return their cats but they wouldn't be home (or perhaps just wouldn't answer?). I didn't have the heart to take them to the shelter, plus they would know it was us that took them and they seemed a little too thuggish to get in a confrontation with. The leasing office pretended like they cared but ultimately didn't seem to do much about it. We tried different things to get them to go away, like spraying water at their face, and even putting our very protective dog out there to scare them off, but they always would keep coming back. Anyway they would climb on my screen door and totally ruined it with holes, and used a corner of my balcony as a litterbox (it SMELLED out there). Thank God they moved out after a few months of this, probably pissing off their new next door neighbor. So DaDakota, I totally feel your pain. My girlfriend works at petsmart, and they have a dog/cat repellant that you can spray that is supposed to repel them away from areas. Don't know how well it works, but probably worth a shot. I wish we had known something like that exists when all this was going on. Good luck!
I bought a repellant once and it didn't do anything. On the advice of my mother in law I sprayed some vinegar and it has done the trick so far of repelling my dogs from certain areas, I imagine it would work for other animals as well. I know it works on ants too.
