This was my response that I sent in last night!
So summer must be here, the flowers are in full bloom, the Swallows have returned to Britain and the cat haters I see are in full flow, except that this one seems to be combined with a neighbour from hell!
I hold down a full time job, raise a family and volunteer for a cat charity where I foster cats and kittens in my own home till they can be found new owners. I have been there as a new born kitten takes it's first breath and at that heartbreaking moment when a cat takes it's last. I have had cases where that cat has undergone terrible suffering at the hands of man. They have been left to starve, neglected or denied vet treatment for the most simplest of conditions that having been left untreated have escalated. Some of my charges are only with me for a few hours or days before the vet has to do the kindest thing. In that time they have been permitted to know warmth and love that they have probably never known.
I take your comments about the damage left to your car and the carnage that you say surrounds your house with a pinch of salt, it strikes me that you have embellished the facts, for sympathy I assume.
May I take the liberty of reminding you of some cat facts. Cats are crepuscular hunters, which matches their prey, i.e. they hunt at dusk and dawn when most of their prey are feeding. During the night they like to do what cats do, and that is explore the neighbourhood, meet up with some feline friends (yes, they can form friendships) or mate. The latter is due to owners who will not have their pets neutered and allow them to fight and roam in the course of seeking out mates. This is the cause of the current population explosion that we currently have in this country, the owners are at fault, not the cat. Perhaps Mr/Mrs keen garden should be saving his/her venom for the owners not take it out on a defenceless animal.
My own cats are kept in between dusk and dawn, they have litter trays in the house and a border is dug over for them so they can use that as their toilet and I have seen them use it. Not long after we moved in here, a neighbour was muttering under her breath about cats in her garden and was accusatory towards us. Our cats were still kept in the house due to the move and were not yet allowed out, but we had the blame. We offered to help if she had issues when they would be allowed out, I have even offered to pick up cat faeces from her garden, not bothering if it is from ours or not. All we have been met with is hostility.
Cats faeces is a health hazard, only when the cat has not been wormed, mine are wormed on a monthly basis. I have kept cats all my life and successfully raised three children, my mother raised us around cats and successfully had three children. Like everything else in pregnancy, take precautions, worm your cat, use gloves to empty the litter tray or better still get someone else to do it. "Keen gardener" you are a prime example of a scaremonger. Enough cats are abandoned due to owners who have discovered they are pregnant and have listened to rubbish like this.
The psychologist "twerp" that you refer to has qualifications in their field, may I ask what yours are in order to make that judgement? It is a well known fact that people who go on to kill have in the past started on defenceless animals.
Cover sand pits, cats like to dig in soft ground, cats needs to sit when toileting put sticks in the ground at an angle, holly prunings are also good. Use water pistols when you see the cat in the garden to deter them, there is plenty of things that can be done to prevent exactly what you moan about.
I throw you down a public challenge, come and see me and some of my feline charges. Look at what they have been through, look at some of the terrible conditions that they come in here. Look me in the eye and tell me that due to humans failure to care that the cats are the ones that should suffer or perhaps you would like to remain the coward that you are and remain behind your anonymity. I look forward to meeting you.
There are thugs out there causing more nuisance and damage than any cat, perhaps you would like to wring their necks as well?
People need to be advised that not only could they face prosecution by the RSPCA for causing suffering to a defenceless animal they could also be charged under the Criminal Damage Act as a cat is classed as property. Also bear in mind that that cat you do harm to is someone's much loved pet and could be the only companion that an elderly neighbour may have.
What sets us apart as humans from the rest of the animals that we share this planet with is our compassion and intelligence, something clearly that our friend here is missing.
