lynnxa

I have a question - I live in a townhouse on the outer edge of an urbanisation.
I have 4 cats. There's a sign in the urb that the owner of any cat found 'doing its business' in the communal gardens of the urb will be fined 6000 €.
Because I live on the outer edge of the urb & have a little garden which opens onto the street, I allow my cats into the garden & they go over to the waste ground opposite - in fact that's one reason we chose to live here.
I NEVER allow the cats out of the house into the urb.......... but since the gates are just metal gates with plenty of room for a cat to stroll through, they might sometimes go into the garden - I don't know - I haven't seen them there. Certainly the feral cats which live on the waste ground enter the garden that way.
Do I HAVE TO keep my cats in? I ONLY let them into the street. What about cat owners who don't live on the urb but whose cats go through the gate? Can they be fined too, since there is no attempt on the part of the urb to stop cats entering?
Can this fine actually be levied just because I live here, rather than on the urb next door?

Rosemary

Difficult one because it is impòssible to totally deter cats from anywhere. I wonder whether this rule was made because some owners do not provide for their cats properly, perhaps there has been a problem with one particular owner.

Rosemary

lynnxa

I happen to know that that is the case exactly

one person whose apartment has no street access has about a dozen cats - so of course they do go directly into the communal garden

missile

Maybe cat owners should "follow" the example set by responsible dog owners.

lynnxa

how do you follow a cat around though?

if I saw my cat fouling in the communal garden I'd clean up after it

but cats don't go for walks on leads...............

mostly my cats use the waste ground where the feral cats are & where my neighbours take their dogs ( & I know for a fact they don't pick up after them) - sometimes they use a flower bed in my garden

I've tried having a litter tray in my garden, but they aren't keen

missile

You have four cats, there is a good chance one of them is messing in the communal gardens and could clean up any cat mess you see.

Cats can be trained.

lynnxa

yes they might well be - but as I said, I've never seen them in the garden - although there are probably 20 or more other cats on the urb - who are let into the urb as their owners don't have street access

cats don't tend to leave their mess in plain sight anyway - more likely buried under a bush - but as I said - I'd clean up after my cat - & cats aren't that easily trained - they'll use a litter tray if there's no other option - but if there's a field they'll go there

I've never actually seen any cat mess in the garden

do dog owners go out & clean up after every other dog on the street? I think not

my point is still - if I let my cats into the STREET - not the urb - & they wander into the urb as any other cat from anywhere else in the area might easily - can this fine be enforced?

agoreira

Certainly next door's cat that likes to dump in my garden seems to be learning, after I've thrown all manner of things at it every time it's pokes it's head in. Not only does it leave it's mess, but likes to kill the birds we encourage.

lynnxa

yes that's right, they can be 'discouraged' from 'dumping' where you don't want them - it's 'encouraging' that's harder!!

that really isn't my point though - if I let them onto the street & they enter the urb through the gate - how can I be held responsible?

or how can the owner of a cat from the next door urb be fined?

bobd22

I would have thought that it would just be an urbinisation rule that has been passed by committee? probably in that case will only apply to cat owners of the specific urbinisation. Not sure how the committee would enforce it as never lived on an urbinisation.

lynnxa

yes it is an urb rule - but if the cat is entering the urb from the street how can its owners be treated any differently to the owners of a cat from elsewhere?

amideislas

angiescarr

I was going to say about the litter tray in the garden. But it seems you already have thics covered. But if you EVER see cat mess that you know is from your cat (which would be unusual if they are buriers which most are. Take a little bit and scent the tray with it, and use sand or sand and wood pellets rather than scented litter. Then toss the results into a little used corner of your garden. (not as disgusting as it sounds). You could even try matcching the contents of the litter tray initially with their favourite spot,if you ever get to know what that is. Just an idea. Don't want to try and teach grandma to suck eggs (pardon the expression) As someone who has recently converted to a cat lover I'm very able to see both sides!

lynnxa

I can totally understand why they don't want cats fouling the garden - but just can't see how they can stop all the cats who don't live in the urb doing it - & really mine don't - they go out into the street - they have no way of getting out of the house directly into the communal garden, unless they 'escape' if we're leaving the house ourselves

they will use a litter tray when it's raining - I put it in the naya - but as soon as it stops they're over the wasteground - there's no stopping them

when then kittens were too little to get out of the garden one of the neighbours complained about the smell from the litter tray!!

they just happened to walk past as it was used.....

the dog next door is kept outdoors - he uses their entire terrace as a toilet - they do walk him a couple of times a day but he's an old boy who can't always wait

they hose the terrace at least once a day, but you can imagine what it's like if they're out all day!!

Dick Dasterdly

They can stop them alright and quite often do, simply by putting poison down in a place only the cats can reach.

Some ring fenced communes have laws against any cats being kept on the premises and have their own way of dealing with them, often disposing of a few stray cats from elsewhere in the process.

Both the secretary/dogsbody and the gardiner hated the sight of cats on a community where I lived many moons ago and so they tended to have a very short lifespan.