OT: Neighbourhood Cats

I don't want to hurt the fekers but I do need to get rid of them. Unlike Ben Arown I don't like having my garden full of cat crap and Jilly most certainly does not.

I cannot tolerate it - I thought about having a word with the owners but that might just cause one of those neighbour pschycho sessions and we all know who will win that one ..



:p

I shall continue humane attempts until I stop them even if I have to buy tiger scent to scare the little bastards away

:barf:
 
Fair enough Brendan, cats are just dumb beasts that don't know any better, then again many cat owners are just dumb beasts that should know better.

'Course now, I ain't calling Bill a dumb beast, he ain't no ordinary cat.:D

Sarge
 
Be careful - cats carry a number of things that prevent their crap from being used as compost. A good air gun works.......177 cal. in the 850 & up fps velocity range. We have a lot of problems with cats. Live traps will work if you have a suitable place to carry them after they are caught. I haven't had a lot of luck with the cayenne pepper for felines, but it works great for getting a dogs' attention. The paint ball gun might be worth a try.
 
Airsoft guns can also be useful. know one guy who trained his cat VERY well with one. Cat runs out of room as soon as he reaches for drawer the gun is in now. :)
 
I've lived in the same neighborhood about 20 years. Last year, for some reason, things changed.

We now have dogs barking ALL NIGHT LONG next door. ( OK, 2 of the 3 disappeared last week - no more night barking to the right of us. Hope it stays that way. ) On the left side, people complained to the extent a couple of their dogs had to be removed. The town has limits to the # pets you can keep.

But to the left of them is one mean and nasty dog. I drove up the driveway and parked in front of my house and he was around the corner raiding the trash cans and promptly put me back in my truck.

Whe I now go out to truck to get something after dark, I go with either a 4 foot X 1 inch nylon rod, an Assegai Spear on the same length hickory shaft, or a Mendowood steel/hardwood/epoxy cane ( club ). If things don't change soon I may take to carrying my 26" Kobra for the neighbors edification during twilight time or turning on the front exterionr light.

19 years, we've had minor problems once a month or so. This year it's all the time. The three houses across the street from us have always had decent dogs. But now the ruckus on our side has the ones across the street stirred up too.

I have no problems with friendly dogs in their own yards. But mean noisy ones running free on the street is another thing.

And a pack of them running alone outside town is a meanace to be dealt with immediately by shooting them all on the spot. Let the owners yell all they want that their Pooch was blameless. When he's lying dead next to several other dogs it's hard to refute he was running in a pack.

Cats don't bother me - I like watching them except when they get into fights under my bedoom windows at three AM. I keep a hose and nozzle in the back by the doorfor those occassions. A few soggy experinces and they go elsewhere til the next mating season.
 
Brendan-- you might want to try a motion-activated sprinkler. It's not the cheapest thing in the world, but probably a bit more humane than shooting. I must say as a cat lover I am very disappointed by some of the suggestions to shoot cats or otherwise dispatch of them:mad: Geeze, people, have some compassion. Cats don't understand property boundaries. If you want to shoot something, shoot the irresponsible pet owners.
--Josh
 
I love dogs and cats. The problem ones are up setting. I did kill both with .22 shorts. Out of a rifle there is no noise. I would rather have .........no never mind:D
 
According to Kenny Runion in the Foxfire book a cat skin makes a wonderful banjo head. The only good use for a cat I've yet to see.
Maybe if I wasn't so allergic to the dayumed things I might feel differently......
Naw, I hate it when I go to set on my front porch and all I can smell is Cat Shlt & Urine.
The nasiest smells in the universe!!!!:barf: :barf: :barf: :barf:
Kill the suckers!!!!:D
 
As far I can tell, coffee grinds, citrus oil (maybe hard to find without lots of other stuff in it) orange rinds, and commercially sold repellants may be worth a shot.

I can snag a bunch of not-so-tasty oranges from the neighbors tree, so I may try that or the coffee grinds next, although but I understand that strewing what is usually considered refuse about the yard may not be compatable with everyone's landscaping schemes.

Of course, there are the usual caveats about the above not working on all cats....Maybe laying down some electrified chicken-wire and letting the plants grow up through it? A deposit is likely guaranteed when they step on or wet the wire, but I'd expect the frequency would drop off pretty fast.:)

And cats do understand property boundaries, theirs--they use cairns of their crap and soak stuff with their pee to draw them. The problem is to find something nontoxic that smells worse to them or is frightenting that I can tolerate so I can use it to carve some property outta their map.
 
I vote for the paintball gun or a hose, lethal measures as a last resort. Cats and dogs aren't dumb, they should be able to take a hint. If not, then natural selection should take it's course. I don't like the idea of killing them for fun though, I used to have to go to school with people who thought kicking possums to death was fun and it infuriated me to no end :mad:. Wanton torture is wrong, humane pest control is something else altogether. Good luck!
 
Originally posted by Brendan even if I have to buy tiger scent to scare the little bastards away [/B]
Click to expand...
My mistake. :barf:
I was in a pet store earlier today & found they were
selling several varieties of wild predator urine.
Asked if it worked on cats and
was told it would have the opposite effect.
DO NOT use wolf, tiger, or other urines.
They will attract more cats.
My bad.

Talk to local veterinarian's office,
they often deal with such problems.

AND:

just found "top 10 cat detterents"
http://cats.about.com/library/weekly/aa031501c.htm
 
That's a relief !! I was thinking about raiding the local zoo but now I don't need too - lucky tiger !!

The main problem is that they tend to be more nocturnal and I am safely tucked up in bed when they strike - I was out in the garden a couple of nights back ... don't ask !! I was sat very still when this little ginger pussy cat caught my eye as it prowled around the shed nto my field of vision. I was wearing slippers and I slowl removed one and let it fly - hit it sweet on the rump and sent it spinning a full 720 after which it bolted off ... haven't seen that one since but there are a few of them. Jilly is scared of the big black one as when she shoos it away it just looks at her and carries on it's business - I saw him once and chased him to the back of the garden where he ducked under the fence followed by a badly aimed mud clump which exploded as it hit the fence - I will get him ..

:cool:
 
IIRC, Doc Watson's first banjo was also homemade and the drum was cat skin... :D I never had much use for cats either, seen way too much damage they cause roaming free. Growing up in the country, a 22LR sent many to their final reward. In the city, they frown on that now, so the live trap seems a good solution, then your friendly pound can charge the offenders to get their cat back or keep it, either way, it should work.
 
they are killers on the loose. A PBS study in Britain astonished me in the numbers of song bird kills by domestic cats, irregardless of how well fed the cats were. Litters of kittens get killed by roving tom-cats who want to breed the female (I think lions exhibit this behavior as well, i.e., kill the previous male's young, induce heat, breed your own litter.)

and this excerpted from a longer article.

What effects do domestic cats have on wildlife?
Although rural free-ranging cats have greater access to wild animals and undoubtedly take the greatest toll, even urban house pets take live prey when allowed outside. Extensive studies of the feeding habits of free-ranging domestic cats over 50 years and four continents [6] indicate that small mammals make up approximately 70% of these cats' prey while birds make up about 20%. The remaining 10% is a variety of other animals. The diets of free-ranging cat populations, however, reflect the food locally available.
Observation of free-ranging domestic cats shows that some individuals can kill over 1000 wild animals per year [7], although smaller numbers are more typical. Some of the data on kills suggest that free-ranging cats living in small towns kill an average of 14 wild animals each per year. Rural cats kill many more wild animals than do urban, or suburban cats [8]. Several studies found that up to 90% of free-ranging rural cats' diet was wild animals, and less than 10% of rural cats killed no wild animals [9]. Recent research [10] suggests that rural free-ranging domestic cats in Wisconsin may be killing between 8 and 217 million birds each year. The most reasonable estimates indicate that 39 million birds are killed in the state each year. Nationwide, rural cats probably kill over a billion small mammals and hundreds of millions of birds each year. Urban and suburban cats add to this toll. Some of these kills are house mice, rats and other species considered pests, but many are native songbirds and mammals whose populations are already stressed by other factors, such as habitat destruction and pesticide pollution.

Despite the difficulties in showing the effect most predators have on their prey, cats are known to have serious impacts on small mammals and birds. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except habitat destruction. Cats are contributing to the endangerment of populations of birds such as Least Terns, Piping Plovers and Loggerhead Shrikes. In Florida, marsh rabbits in Key West have been threatened by predation from domestic cats [11]. Cats introduced by people living on the barrier islands of Florida's coast have depleted several unique species of mice and woodrats to near extinction [12, 13].

Not only do cats prey on many small mammals and birds, but they can outnumber and compete with native predators. Domestic cats eat many of the same animals that native predators do. When present in large numbers, cats can reduce the availability of prey for native predators, such as hawks [14] and weasels [15].

Free-ranging domestic cats may also transmit new diseases to wild animals. Domestic cats have spread feline leukemia virus to mountain lions [16] and may have recently infected the endangered Florida Panther with feline panleukopenia (feline distemper) and an immune deficiency disease [17]. These diseases may pose a serious threat to this rare species. Some free-ranging domestic cats also carry several diseases that are easily transmitted to humans, including rabies and toxoplasmosis [18].



Domestic cats vs. native predators
Although cats make affectionate pets, many domestic cats hunt as effectively as wild predators. However, they differ from wild predators in three important ways: First, people protect cats from disease, predation and competition, factors that can control numbers of wild predators, such as bobcats, foxes, or coyotes. Second, they often have a dependable supply of supplemental food provided by humans and are, therefore, not influenced by changes in populations of prey. Whereas populations of native predators will decline when prey becomes scarce, cats receiving food subsidies from people remain abundant and continue to hunt even rare species. Third, unlike many native predators, cat densities are either poorly limited or not limited by territoriality [19]. These three factors allow domestic cats to exist at much higher densities than native predators. In some parts of rural Wisconsin, densities of free-ranging cats reach 114 cats per square mile. In these areas, cats are several times more abundant than all mid-sized native predators (such as foxes, raccoons, skunks) combined. With abundant food, densities can reach over 9 per acre, and cats often form large feeding and breeding "colonies" (81 cats were recorded in one colony, and colonies of over 20 are not uncommon) [20, 21]. Unlike some predators, a cat's desire to hunt is not suppressed by adequate supplemental food. Even when fed regularly by people, a cat's motivation to hunt remains strong, so it continues hunting.

The barn cats in rural wisconsin kill more game birds than hunters ever will.
 
One of the main reasons I don't want cats in my garden is cos my dear Jilly has been putting out all the bird seed and feeders and such and is scared that the pesky cats will eat the birdies - coupled with the smell and chore of having to clear up little cat gifts I think anyone can appreciate the problem...

I phoned the cat protection league and they were very understanding and were chuffed that I didn't erradicate them (I am getting some Gil Hibben throwing knives - naah forget it)......

:)
 
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