House came with more than bargained for (7 stray cats)

SoupyNorman

Yeah so we’re a week in our new house and low and behold up to 7 stray / wild cats gather in the back garden everyday and at night they come up to the door and even sit meowing on the bedroom window.

I’ve scattered lemon peel and coffee grinds around but the property is on .7 of an acre so there’s only so much coffee with lemon I can drink!

I have a small dog and he chased them away at the beginning but they’ve stopped running away from him now, in fact, they sometimes surround him and hiss…added to that I have a 1 year old boy who absolutely loves the garden so A. it’s not sanitary have that many cats about and B. it’s not safe.

Any advice on how to get them removed greatly received!

oppenheimer1

You have a few options. The previous occupant probably fed them, so if you ignore them they will eventually go away. <snip>. Or you could capture them and bring them to the pound.

DBB

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

You have a few options. The previous occupant probably fed them, so if you ignore them they will eventually go away. <snip> Or you could capture them and bring them to the pound.

There are no pounds for cats.
I have snipped part of your post, and let that be a mark to other people posting with advice: directing a mild spray of water towards, not upon, unwanted cats is about the top level of aversive treatment that we'll stand for in this forum.
Thanks,
DBB

Nody

Best bet is to reach out to a local rescue and see what they can help you with and esp. make sure they are all neutered (or you're not going to have 8 cats soon).

Fionne

Yeah, looks like the previous owner was feeding them. Is there no way you can just embrace having cats? I started out feeding 2 strays and wouldn't have had cats by choice but wouldn't be without them now.

Have you asked the neighbours if they know if anyone actually owns these cats? They may belong to someone but cats will basically go to whichever house has the nicest food on offer, they're so disloyal! :-)

If you can't find anyone to take them, first job is to make sure they're neutered or you will literally be over-run. One of my cats had 2 litters of 4 kittens each, one in April and one in August before I got her neutered, it's scarily quick how fast you can end up with dozens of cats!

oppenheimer1

DBB wrote: »

There are no pounds for cats.
I have snipped part of your post, and let that be a mark to other people posting with advice: directing a mild spray of water towards, not upon, unwanted cats is about the top level of aversive treatment that we'll stand for in this forum.
Thanks,
DBB

Well rescue then.

<snipped to remove continued discussion of cruel method of cat population control> There is no point in advising something that won't work - all the while they dirty around the garden preventing the OP from enjoying it?

athtrasna

A former tenant left a load in our development when they moved out, we got someone from the council to come around and collect them

DBB

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

Well rescue then.

<snipped to remove cruel method of cat population control> There is no point in advising something that won't work - all the while they dirty around the garden preventing the OP from enjoying it?

Oppenheimer1,
There are two things I will make perfectly clear to you.
First, it is a site-wide rule that arguing on-thread with a mod intervention is forbidden. For this reason, you have been issued with a red card.
And second, what you do in the privacy of your own time is up to you, but we have rules here as to the advice people can give vs how far that advice goes to breach acceptable levels of animal welfare.
We are not at all happy with your recommendations on how to control unwanted cats. As someone who is pretty highly trained in applied animal welfare science, I can assure you that my peers would agree that what you're advocating is empirically cruel. It may not be hugely cruel compared to other things, but like I said before you took to argue with me on-thread, it is nevertheless a level of cruelty that we are not happy to have advocated on this forum.
Let me also remind you that there are very strict restrictions on discussion of animal population control in this forum, which have also been breached.
Do what you like in your own time, but do not use this forum to advocate methods that step over a line.
Do not reply to this post on thread.
Thanks,
DBB

SoupyNorman

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

Well rescue then.

<snipped to remove cruel method of cat population control> There is no point in advising something that won't work - all the while they dirty around the garden preventing the OP from enjoying it?

<snipped to remove discussion of cruel method of cat population control>

DBB

Soupynorman (OP),
What a train crash of a thread, brought to places it shouldn't have gone, then despite all the trouble you pour petrol on the flames. Bad form.
Because this forum won't be used to advocate methods of cat control that breach the forum charter, I am forced now to delete and edit various comments, including your last one. It'll prevent me having to infract more people.
Thread closed.
DBB

SoupyNorman

DBB wrote: »

Soupynorman (OP),
What a train crash of a thread, brought to places it shouldn't have gone, then despite all the trouble you pour petrol on the flames. Bad form.
Because this forum won't be used to advocate methods of cat control that breach the forum charter, I am forced now to delete and edit various comments, including your last one. It'll prevent me having to infract more people.
Thread closed.
DBB

<snip>
And take a holiday from the forum whilst you're at it. You don't appear to quite understand the ethos of this forum terribly well.