Neighborhood cats shit right in the middle of my lawn. It stinks and the robot lawn mover makes it even worse.

I do NOT like cats, and this is not helping.

What works to keep them from shitting on my lawn?


The votes have spoken. Some people are cat lovers; thanks for the great advice from the rest of you! I will not go out of my way to accommodate other people’s pets that aren’t welcome on my property. My first weapon of choice will be chili because it’s simple and cheap. Other ideas have been noted.

  • clover@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Put in a sand pit somewhere you are ok with them shitting. Training domesticated cats is an undertaking that in my limited experience comes down to giving them an option they’d prefer over their current behavior. Trying to dissuade a feral cat from shitting where they please humanely seems like a loosing battle.

    • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I am OK with them shitting not on my property. If I’d wanted cat shit, I’d get a cat. I don’t, so I don’t. These aren’t feral cats.

      • Richie030@unilem.org
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        1 year ago

        The irony being that cats don’t shit in their own gardens, best way to stop getting cat shit in your garden is to get a cat.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s best to just trap them and relocate them far far away. Or bring them to whatever shelter will sell these cats to more families that will then have more outdoor cats.

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          True. Although letting cats roam around isn’t great either. They often get diseases (e.g. feline AIDS) or get run over and tend to decimate local wildlife. It’s not awesome.

          PS but doing this doesn’t solve anything. They will get another cat and do the same goddamn thing.

          • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Eventually they run out of cats…

            But I agree, it’s short term. People that have outdoor cats should be charged with animal neglect and prevented from owning animals as a long term solution

        • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          What…relocate an obvious stray? If they cared so much they wouldn’t let it roam like a stray.

          Why do people always defend those who clearly don’t care about their cats well being in the first place by claiming ‘its an outdoor cat’.

          Your logic is ass backwards. Leash your cat when it’s outdoors or don’t have a cat.

          • Khotetsu@lib.lgbt
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            1 year ago

            And your logic is bass ackwards. The solution is to educate people about how bad letting cats live outdoors is, not pretend that their pet is a feral. All you’ll do that way is eventually come home to broken windows once they find out who stole their cat. Tell them how much better (and longer) their cat’s life will be if they live indoors vs. outdoors and you’re much more likely to actually change something.

            The majority of people don’t know any better. And if they grew up with cats, it’s very likely that that’s how they were taught that you care for a cat. It’s only been in the past 20 years or so that the consensus on how cats should be kept has shifted from outdoors to indoors. Hell, look at how common declawing cats still is.

            • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Ahhh yes because educating people about how they are neglectful with animals clearly works…I’ve been telling people for years and guess what, they still open the window and let them roam.

              These people know it’s wrong, but they don’t care because look how cute the cat is…plus it won’t shut up because they keep allowing the behaviours. If it truly is the case about people being ignorant about cats, why aren’t there more dogs roaming…they know it’s wrong, they just don’t care.

              • TheWeirdestCunt@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                The reason there aren’t more dogs roaming is because dogs are a completely separate species from the wild wolves they descended from, house cats still interbreed with wildcats because we haven’t domesticated them yet.

                • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  Ahhh yes, justification for people to be careless with the pets. Gotta love it.

        • Slowy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Don’t take your neighbours pet away. Don’t punish an animal that doesn’t know it’s doing anything wrong, punish the owner… by reporting them. Or relocating the cat shit to their front step. Or you can start by just talking to them

          • hobovision@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            The neighbors will be sure to tell their cat to stop shitting in the lawn. The cat will listen, and stop, surely.

            • Slowy@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Maybe they don’t realize how far they’re wandering, it’s just worth a shot is all. It’s not the only option available anyway, people absolutely can get fines handed out as well. I have more aggressive location ideas where the cat poop can be placed as well…

              • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Who cares if they don’t realize it, they shouldn’t even be letting cats roam in the first place …they are neglectful about the cats well being by even letting it roam free outside unsupervised.

                • Slowy@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  The reason to care about that is to improve your chances of solving the problem. If it turns out they are doing that unintentionally, talking to them may fix or reduce your problem, pretty straightforward.

          • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            It’s not a pet if they let it roam and don’t even know where the hell the thing is or what it’s doing. They are the neglectful owners and shouldn’t have a pet. Keep your cats indoors or risk losing them.

          • ougi@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            So have you moved on from killing animals to people yet, or is that still a few weeks down the line?

            • Spacemanspliff@midwest.social
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              1 year ago

              Can’t kill the nuisance invasive species cause it’s to cute. Fuck all the local natural wild life it’s killing though, birds are dumb.

          • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Don’t kill it. Just rehome it or relocate it to the wilderness far away where it can live in nature like the ‘owners’ want anyways