I was practically born one of the cat ladies; given my first cat when I was 3 and was rescuing them by my teens. Back then, we let cats AND dogs run at large and it wasn’t much of a problem. Best I can tell, the critters had more street smarts back then and so did the humans. If your dog or cat misbehaved, someone was going to correct it and all were fine with that. Over the years, the numbers of us having pets and the numbers of us AND pets has grown. Communities have enacted restrictions on animals running at large.
"No owner or keeper of an animal shall allow his, theirs or its animal to run at large," the key language says. That language isn’t uncommon but the cats usually get a pass. Not in my book. I don’t want your cat in my yard any more than I want your dog in my yard. My yard belongs to me and my critters. Your cat is almost certainly not going to respect that territory because of a fence since cats can usually fly right over fences.
Cats "are quite neat when it comes to personal scatological matters," said a letter to the editor bearing the signature Morticai Flint, who turns out to be a tiger cat owned by Paul and Alison Flint. Indeed, Morticai is correct and that’s the problem. Cats don’t want to crap in their own yards which is why they crap in someone else’s yard.
If a community is going to restrict pets for health reasons, then all pets should be restricted. In fact, I heartily approve of the key language in this statute as it makes owners of animals responsible for their animals uniformly and THAT is what’s fair. It isn’t the least bit fair or reasonable for cats to be singled out for a pass on this issue. I’ve seen cats do incredible amounts of damage to a condo building so the concept that they are benign is just plain silly to me.
These days, most people contain their animals and, if one doesn’t want to contain them, then move to a less densely populated area where that’s acceptable. Make a choice but don’t expect to burden neighbors with picking up after or dealing with your cats while all other animals are to be contained. Just as one can leash a dog, one can train cats to a harness and leash. Just as one can build a kennel or fenced area for dogs, one can do the same for cats.
My 3 cats are older and they quite enjoy my screened porch and have stolen a 200 square foot dog kennel for themselves (having forcibly evicted the dogs). Fortunately, they only need a 6’ fence to keep them in. However, keeping one’s cats in and other cats out is usually just a matter of adding barbed wire arms (which can be added whether the fence is wood or chainlink) to the top of a fence tilting out in both directions and stringing chicken wire or other metal mesh (string it loosely, cats tend to dislike crawling upside down on a mesh that moves) on the arms instead of barbed wire. Some agile cats can get over this but it works for the majority. If necessary, one may need a kennel for cats that is fully enclosed. Hey, that’s just a part of being a cat lady in this day and age if one wants to live near others.
I’d be fine with going back to letting dogs and cats run at large but don’t scream at me when your cat crawls down my dog’s throat. Personally, I’ve moved back out to a more open neighborhood where animals do run at large to some degree yet I choose to restrict my own. All the more reason I expect not to get screamed at if a cat crawls down my dog’s throat because the only way that will happen is if that cat is in my dog’s territory so…