Neighbour threatened to shoot cat yesterday - thoughts?

[Pheo]

Hi All,

Interested to garner some more opinions here.

Situation - we have two domestic cats, who are mainly house cats but that we let out when we are around on the weekend. We live in a terraced ex council house with its own small garden - the gardens all back onto each other in a U configuration, and are what I would describe as reasonably dense. Alleyways run along the back of the gardens and we all have back gates.

Neighbour around to the corner on the U has a relatively old jack Russell style dog. When we let our cats out, it regularly reacts to them being there when going for a walk by chasing the cats a bit. I'm not overly worried by this

What happened:

Yesterday I was doing extensive work on the garden (see the lawn thread!). As such I had the back gate open. For whatever reason neighbours dog came out into the alley way off a lead, and was chasing one of my cats who quickly scarpered. The dog then came around the corner and then chased the cat into my garden - running across wet concrete in the process! He runs into the middle of the garden where I'm working, so I shout at it to try and encourage it to leave without touching it (I'm not a massive dog fan, but scared of them for historical reasons). I don't think the neighbour realised

Dog leaves and I stick my head out of hate to check it's not trying to come back in. Neighbour then comes round and says "your bloody cat is winding my dog up, it shouldn't be coming near my back yard, Ive mind to stick a pellet in it". I then say I'm sorry there's not a lot to do to control them.

He mumbles something about sorting them out again and I (perhaps this wasn't my finest hour) say ok I'll have a word - he then comes back and says "Why are you being funny about it, I've got racing pigeons up there and they're worth £1000 each, if anything happens I'll sort your cat". I then say this is difficult because I can't control them, legally you do have to control a dog, but it's difficult for me to stop them, and that in all seriousness we don't let them out often so that they don't bother other people. He mutters and exits the situation. After this for obvious reasons I took the cats in.

Wondering what you would do... I've deliberately left it 24 hours as I was a bit riled at the time.

Possible courses of action:

Forget it
Ask the police to note the event but ask for no further action
Ring RSPCA or similar and ask for advice
Write a letter outlining when the cats will be out, and when they will not, offer that if they are causing a nuisance then we will come round and attempt to bring them in for him
Go round there and attempt to discuss

I've been warned by some friends that this guy can be a bit hard to handle; and I don't particularly want to cause WW3 - I'm mindful that might be worse for the cats, and really who wants to fall out with people

Any thoughts?

[R8Steve]

So his uncontrolled dog comes running into your garden and he blames your cat and as a result wants to shoot it?

[megaphone]

Just ignore it. Any action will just escalate the situation. Life is too short.

[EagleMoto4-2]

Am not a big fan of neighbours cats as there are a few down our street who seem to like pooing in our back garden, which isnt good when you have kids who like to play in said garden. However I understand that unlike dogs they have minds of their own and cant be controlled so there isnt much I can do about it and wouldnt dream of shooting/poisoning a neighbours cat.
I would think contacting RSPCA would be your best bet as they are more likely to do something as a) they have the time and b) when it comes to animal welfare (owners pet being threatened) they tend to be proactive.

[AndrewEH1]

If it was me I'd call the Police on 101 and ask for advice, they will send someone round for a chat to you/him if you mention he threatened to shoot your cat.

Not sure on air rifle laws in England but from May in Scotland you have to register them to stop this exact behaviour.

[bayleaf]

Amazing that a throwaway comment makes you take to the Internet with such a post tbh!
I'd have said 'if my cat doesn't come home one night or is ever injured when he does, I'll be knocking on your door then' and left it at that and continued with life.

[bayleaf]

AndrewEH1 said:

If it was me I'd call the Police on 101 and ask for advice, they will send someone round for a chat to you/him if you mention he threatened to shoot your cat.

Not sure on air rifle laws in England but from May in Scotland you have to register them to stop this exact behaviour.

Poor police

[okgo]

Move to a better area

/ph

[Boosted LS1]

Tell him that if anything happens to your cats you'll take up pigeon shooting. He's got enough for a few tasty pies :-)

[MitchT]

Hammer frozen sausages into his lawn and then stand back and watch while his own dog trashes his lawn.

[CAPP0]

MitchT said:

Hammer frozen sausages into his lawn and then stand back and watch while his own dog trashes his lawn.

Wow, what a fantastic plan! Where did you get such an original idea from??

[fido]

I'd call the RSPCA on this one - maybe not approach him directly - but maybe they could pay a high profile visit. Bit tricky after the event, but I would have queried him at the time as to what he meant, and suggested that it would be tit for tat (or cat).

[BlackZeD]

£1000 a pigeon, now that wouldn't leave a bad taste would it.
Should have told him if the cats get hurt he would need to send
his pigeons on a fire fighting course asap.....

[Spare tyre]

Try to ignore them

I always thought the guy near us was a total nob (he is) but when I was talking to his son about the illness and things he puts up with, I can understand why

[Amused2death]

Various laws relating to where you can use an airgun, such as proximity to a roadway, path etc. I know that on it's own won't solve an arsey neighbour, but acquainting yourself with current legislation might put you on a firmer footing if you speak to the Police about his "threat"

[geeks]

Speaking as a cat owner who has had a cat shot (there is a thread here somewhere) don't ignore it! I have a feeling who "put a pellet" in ours but will never prove it, I would make a non follow up report to 101 if you can so should anything happen they have a clear record, I reported ours and the Police took it very seriously but ultimately could not find out who it was. I would also keep said moggies in for a couple of weeks to allow your neighbour to calm down and hopefully forget about it!

[Pheo]

Thanks all,

I think the non Followup report via 101 is a good idea as you say, incase something happens later I have proof on file just in case

Will indeed keep the cats in - they are probably out less than once a week on average. I don't want to escalate it as it might cause him to over react ... But I will find out more about the air rifle situation so I'm better prepared to talk to the situation in the future.

Also appreciate cats arnt for everyone - which is why we don't let them go roaming all over all day.

[croyde]

You can't use an air weapon within 50 feet of a public byway which rules out most gardens as there must be a road nearby.

[Marlin45]

You also can't shoot cats

[popeyewhite]

Pets huh.