I think you are taking my comments out of context. I was simply challenging the comments of one poster as it's hardly fair criticising cats but saying they become fair game for dogs.

Whilst I agree with you, and speaking as a person who has a coat with at least one pocket full of plastic bags, the day I see a cat owner walking the streets after their pet with a pocket full of plastic bags ready to pick up their poop is a day that will be worthy of note in my diary.

I think the situation was summed up pretty well by someone on the Sunday Brunch program today when speaking about toads and how they, and birds, have something of a conflict with cats in many gardens - cats have never been fully domesticated and still retain a strong hunting instinct even though most of them don't need it, dogs are very much pack animals and most dogs will easily accept the subversent role in the pack (and the ones who don't are the dangersous ones), hence they are happy for the pack leader (you) to do the hunting and food gathering - thats the way it works in our house anyway, for the dogs and the other humans in it.

Just to throw another spoon in the mixer, anyone who happliy lets their dog chase a cat with no qualms is not keeping the animal under control as per their legal requirements, and somewhere down the line will find themselves sitting in a vets surgery facing a big bill for some pretty wicked scratch marks down their doggy's face.

My cat has a tray in the house and a area of the garden for him to use, i can't do anymore than that, my neighbours throw stones/water to discourage him from visiting them.

I have no problem with them doing so, both are keen gardeners and don't want my cat but neither would harm him.

I have no issues with responsible dog owners. and cleaning up after them as improved.

And they say that athropomorphism isn't what it used to be.

Cats are hunters, hunting is an innate instinct that they have, they have no sense of what is cruel or not cruel, hence they cannot be termed "cruel" any more than a lion or a fox.

The responsibility for any hunting done by cats without bells lies with humans.

I was in our local pet shop at the end of last summer (what there was of it) and heard a guy moaning at the owner about the lack of birds that had visited his garden and blamed it on the local cats. The pet shop owner asked him how many caterpillars he'd seen during the summer and he answered "very few, it's been too wet". The owner said "well there's your answer, if it's too wet for insects to breed, there ain't going to be any food for the birds, so why should they visit your garden?"

I've absolutely nothing against people keeping cats, but like any pets they should be kept under control - If they are unable to do this then they should not moan if their pets are treated as the pests that they are.

Personally, I've always found that a plate of catfood laced with fish hooks is a handy way of seeing the little buggers off....

so, not only do we have religious fundamentalists, bigots, racists, homophobes and xenophobes, but also people who would be cruel and generally inhumane . What wonderful people some RLFans are.

Standee in pseudo-socialist mode.

I have nothing against cats, but I am more of a dog person. I have nothing against cats chasing and killing birds and mice, thats what they do, thats their instinct and millions of years of that behavior is not going to change no matter how much they have been domesticated and I would never hurt any animal no matter what they did.

I do everything I possibly can not to allow my dogs to chase cats. I use head collars so they don't pull me over and I can be in full control. If I see a cat before they do I use the distraction technique (lots of treats and "look at me's"icon_wink.gif but if they chase a cat while on our field off lead then I can't do anything about that and to be honest the cat always "wins" by jumping a wall, running faster etc

The thing that really bothers me though is that cats are allowed to roam, wander nonchalantly across busy roads and do their business in other peoples gardens without consequence. I am required by law to be in full control of my dogs, have them on a lead on or near a road and always pick up their business and dispose. We have a cat down our close who goes in my garden in the same spot and to be honest, its business is no different in shape or size to what my dogs do, yet if I let my dog "go" in a neighbours garden without picking up I could potentially be prosecuted and fined upto £1000. Poo is poo and still can be potentially lethal no matter if from cat or dog if ingested into the stomach so why are cat owners totally exoneriated from picking up?

Valid point.
My garden is frequented by cats from a nearby street where none of the houses have gardens ... hence we can deduce that the owners have acquired cats presuming that a litter tray will suffice.
Any cat that is let out at night will revert to natural behaviour.

I don't mind that much if they bury their waste, it soons degrades under the soil, but one little bugger doesn't bury it.
I hate that little sod.
And it knows me now too, it pushes off sharpish whenever and wherever it sees me.

Not a cat or a dog person.
Never had them, never will.

I appreciate greyhounds because they give me an occasional night out and a flutter.

I've given up on replacing plants that have been ripped up by cats and had to slate most of the front garden to try and stop them using it as a toilet. Now they've started using the lawn at the back !!.