alley cat question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have several alley cats (Blue Collar Cats) that patrol the neighborhood, fed by a neighbor. The cats have decided to make their home turf our backyard, and are pooping all over my garden and lawn, and I'm getting really tired of it. My question is, if I set up a litter box for them outside, would they use it instead of my garden? And would more than one cat use the same litter box?

Trap them and drop off at the shelter. Your neighbor never needs to know.

+1 But if you want to be sneaky, remove the blue collar. Of course it might be chipped, but you don’t need to have cats pooping in your yard and killing your garden.

I’d like to see numbers on what these animals are actually doing in terms of rodent control vs. the damage they’re doing to dwindling bird populations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have several alley cats (Blue Collar Cats) that patrol the neighborhood, fed by a neighbor. The cats have decided to make their home turf our backyard, and are pooping all over my garden and lawn, and I'm getting really tired of it. My question is, if I set up a litter box for them outside, would they use it instead of my garden? And would more than one cat use the same litter box?

Trap them and drop off at the shelter. Your neighbor never needs to know.

+1 But if you want to be sneaky, remove the blue collar. Of course it might be chipped, but you don’t need to have cats pooping in your yard and killing your garden.

I’d like to see numbers on what these animals are actually doing in terms of rodent control vs. the damage they’re doing to dwindling bird populations.

+2. And if someone could quantify the annoyance and health hazards of these cats pooping in peoples’ yards. The TNR people do a huge lobbying effort, but legislators rarely get to see the other side because there’s no organization of po’d homeowners or doctors who’ve treated toxoplasmosis.

But, TNR cats have clipped ears and you can’t change that.

[Anonymous]

We had a neighbor's cat using my front garden as a litter box. I bought a motion activated pressurized air sprayer and pointed them in the general direction. They blast cold air when someone gets close. Even I jumped, but they don't hurt at all. No more cat poop.

Not sure how many you would need. It is irritating that others think that having a cat means leaving them roam and poop all over the neighborhood, but all I can do is instruct them that my flower bed is not a fun place to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Oh god it’s the “release all dogs into the wild!” lady again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have several alley cats (Blue Collar Cats) that patrol the neighborhood, fed by a neighbor. The cats have decided to make their home turf our backyard, and are pooping all over my garden and lawn, and I'm getting really tired of it. My question is, if I set up a litter box for them outside, would they use it instead of my garden? And would more than one cat use the same litter box?

Trap them and drop off at the shelter. Your neighbor never needs to know.

+1 Beat me to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Bullsh*t. Cats are non-native and definitely not part of the ecosystem. Nothing around here evolved to deal with cat predation. Feral/outdoor cats are incredibly damaging to our ecosystem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Bullsh*t. Cats are non-native and definitely not part of the ecosystem. Nothing around here evolved to deal with cat predation. Feral/outdoor cats are incredibly damaging to our ecosystem.

+1
I know they’re fixed, but it’s not like they don’t do damage and cause annoyance. Pets should not be free range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a neighbor's cat using my front garden as a litter box. I bought a motion activated pressurized air sprayer and pointed them in the general direction. They blast cold air when someone gets close. Even I jumped, but they don't hurt at all. No more cat poop.

Not sure how many you would need. It is irritating that others think that having a cat means leaving them roam and poop all over the neighborhood, but all I can do is instruct them that my flower bed is not a fun place to be.

You should bill your neighbor for the air sprayer. No reason you should have to pay for her cat’s behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Bullsh*t. Cats are non-native and definitely not part of the ecosystem. Nothing around here evolved to deal with cat predation. Feral/outdoor cats are incredibly damaging to our ecosystem.

Wild cats are part of our human‐made ecosystem. They are nocturnal and catch mice. I'm not talking about irresponsible pet owners who let their cats outdoors. I'm taking about fetal cats, born in the wild and unable to domesticate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Bullsh*t. Cats are non-native and definitely not part of the ecosystem. Nothing around here evolved to deal with cat predation. Feral/outdoor cats are incredibly damaging to our ecosystem.

Wild cats are part of our human‐made ecosystem. They are nocturnal and catch mice. I'm not talking about irresponsible pet owners who let their cats outdoors. I'm taking about fetal cats, born in the wild and unable to domesticate.

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, all these suggestions—motion-activated sprinklers, wolf piss (shudder)—just drive the cats into your neighbors’ yards. They aren’t solutions.

Well...they are for OP depending on how much she cares about that!

That seems to encapsulate the TNR attitude—cats trump people and wildlife and human health concerns.

And, please explain why OP should be dropping $200 on multiple sprinklers and hoses, or spraying her yard and with stinky wolf piss every 10 weeks, or why her neighbors should be doing this, when none of them created the problem.

The woman with the cat colony made this problem and should be paying for her neighbors’ sprinklers.

TNR cats are wildlife and party of an ecosystem

Bullsh*t. Cats are non-native and definitely not part of the ecosystem. Nothing around here evolved to deal with cat predation. Feral/outdoor cats are incredibly damaging to our ecosystem.

Wild cats are part of our human‐made ecosystem. They are nocturnal and catch mice. I'm not talking about irresponsible pet owners who let their cats outdoors. I'm taking about fetal cats, born in the wild and unable to domesticate.

Absolutely not.

Cats are originally from the Middle East—they’re nothing like the bobcats that evolved here. They don’t just kill mice; outdoor cats are responsible for at least one billion, probably more like two billion, bird kills a year, often fledglings and birds that nest close to the ground like white-throated sparrows. Bird populations are down 30% since the 1970s (white-throated sparrows are down 60%) and outdoor cats are a huge part of that.

Feral cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species of birds, mammals and reptiles. They continue to threaten hundreds more species.

There’s no evidence cats are effective at rodent control. (Go to the Wikipedia page “Cat predation on wildlife”.)

Feral cat poop spreads toxoplasmosis, a disease that’s terrible for pregnant women and those who are immuno-compromised. Not to mention, it’s nasty and, as you can see from this thread, your neighbors have to spend hundreds of dollars to deal with your colony’s impact.

Cat owners and TNR colony managers have to take responsibility for this ecological damage.

[Anonymous]

We had a free roaming cat that brought several families mice. When we moved we would get calls to make sure he was ok. He lives indoors now, but if our neighborhood allowed it he’d be outside. Not on topic but another viewpoint. He was once an alley cat - I adopted him once he asked to be a pet.

[Anonymous]

We spray unwanted cats with a hose. Or throw buckets of water at them - over time it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a free roaming cat that brought several families mice. When we moved we would get calls to make sure he was ok. He lives indoors now, but if our neighborhood allowed it he’d be outside. Not on topic but another viewpoint. He was once an alley cat - I adopted him once he asked to be a pet.

Adopting cats is great. Letting them roam free is not.

The cost of those families of mice is several other small mammals, fledglings and birds a week. And, read the Wikipedia link—cats really aren’t effective at rodent control. Better to get a mousetrap.

And that’s without getting into toxoplasmosis and the annoyance to your neighbors.