Just another view on the indoor outdoor cat debate. (I do not have any cats currently!)
I have had lots of cats and they were all outdoor cats. And yes, I belled them so they couldn’t catch birds! But they all died of old age, not one was killed in traffic, though I have always lived in the urban core where traffic is high.
Indoor cats die in traffic, often, in my experience. Because being animals and wanting to go outside, they eventually, always accidentally, get free! Only to die in traffic because they have no experience with cars, how fast they go, noises they’ve no experience with, and so get killed. Whereas outdoor cats do know what sounds to be fearful of and which are normal. They know both what cars sound like, and how and where they move.
There are two ways of looking at this, like most things. And I’m not trying to convince anyone, it’s your cat and you should do what you please of course. In my experience outdoor cats don’t die under car tires nearly as much as escaped indoor cats do. They, sooner or later get free, escaping under even the most careful attention. Which to me, bespeaks a ‘need’ to be out of doors, it seems cruel to deny, like a bird in a cage. I’d rather my pets were familiar with the sounds and dangers outside, rather then scared by noises they don’t know, running directly into traffic, because they don’t know any better, and die a horrible death, as a result.
(Again, to be clear, I am not trying to convert you. Do as you believe. I’m only pointing out that there are very different ways to view it, like most things!)
OK, so then lets have dogs running wild as well. I don’t know why cats get a free pass.
Any cat owner who lets their animal run around the neighborhood has no business getting upset if a dog shits on their lawn.
elbows, I see your point and I raise you one other issue.
The last indoor/outdoor cat I had was killed by stray dogs. My neighbor just lost an indoor/outdoor cat to the same thing (different dogs, different neighborhood). She recently lost another cat, but we don’t know from what. I suspect a hungry hawk or owl – I saw a really huge Barred Owl on my back deck just a day or so before this second cat was reported missing.
After my cat was mauled by the random dog(s), I refused to let another cat outside, ever. I have caved on this with my current kitty, but he is only allowed outside on the screened-in porch. He can see the birds and squirrels, he can stalk the birds and squirrels, but he can’t actually get to them. Nor can the birds of prey get to him, nor the random dogs, nor the cars. This seems to be a good compromise for the both of us.
I’m just sayin’, there’s more dangers than just traffic to kitty cats.
So it’s OK to hate on dog owners who are picking up after their pets, but not on parents who cannot be bothered to do the same with their kids? :dubious:
Yeah, they do that too, but I try to stay away from SquallMart!
I had two indoor/outdoor cats at this house - one flat disappeared and one drug herself home after having been ravaged by coyotes, and we live close to the urban core. After that, the current kitty is indoor only and I worked hard to make her afraid of the outdoor world so she wouldn’t be trying to slip by my husband (husbands are harder to train than cats…)
No, not a need, just curiosity and maybe a desire to get at the birds they see from inside. All of my indoor/outdoor cats preferred to be inside (used to have a lot of barn cats when I lived north).
Firstly, I want to say that anyone who lets their cat roam the neighborhood and has a problem with bagged dog poop in a trash bin is objectively a useless hypocritical piece of shit.
Now on to more important things. I was sincere when I said that I didn’t imagine that people would have a problem with bagged poop in outdoor garbage bins and I don’t want to upset my neighbors. To that end, I have decided to conduct a survey. There are a few different walks that I take in the neighborhood and my dog, being a creature of habit, tends to poop in the same general area depending on the walk we take. That means that certain trash bins get more of my dog’s poop than others.
Today was a fortunate day. As I approached a bin that I use all the time, the lady of the house was unloading groceries from her car…and I had a fresh bag of poop with me! I held up the bag and asked her if it was ok if I put it in her trash can. She gave me a weird look like, “why is he bothering me with this” and said, “of course. Go right ahead.”
So I think that we can all agree that I can freely use the bin where the cute yoga pants lady with the Volvo lives. I will continue on my quest and update as I get more data but I would be surprised if anyone will react differently around here.
Dog owner here, and I agree with hajario. It’s a TRASH CAN, for goodness sake. Hopefully all dog owners tie their poop bags closed.
The OP is somewhat unique in that most (all?) where I live keep their trash cans outside the house by a side door, not inside. I do undertand the OP’s ire and, as many have already suggested, a simple sign on the trash can will help.
Now, about the stupid cat who occassionally craps on my front lawn, where’s my B-B gun… ?
It’s not whether the person is littering. It’s the fact that Rachel is leaving it in the street. Not the sidewalk, which makes some sense, but the street, where it will get ran over and splattered on someone else’s car. The other person may be a litterer, but at least they put it in a place where they thought it wouldn’t cause a mess.
With my admittedly small sample size of the two indoor-only cats I’m familiar with (one which is mine), they both have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go outside.
I can leave the door wide open and my (fixed male) cat will stick his nose out to look and sniff around without ever so much as putting a paw down from the door step. And this is a cat that pretty much always follows me around the house, but I can walk out the front door, leaving it open, and he will stop and stay at the door step. Though, that might have something to do with the fact that I found him outside as a shrieking, shaking, skinny, flea-bitten tiny kitten, and he doesn’t exactly associate the outdoors with pleasant memories.
Just sayin’… your generalization that all indoor cats are just dying to get out and inevitably will, so it’s cruel/irresponsible to not let them, is not remotely true, IME. And to swing this more on-topic, I do suspect that some people encourage their cats to be indoor/outdoor cats so that they won’t have quite so much litterbox cleaning to do. :dubious:
I’m slightly disappointed that this thread hasn’t offered some humorous suggestions for the verbiage of an anti poopy-bag sign for the OP’s garbage can. The main reason that I actually read the whole thread was with that expectation.
Come on people! Make with the witty signs, or I will be forced to subject you to my own. (which will probably be pretty lame)
I read through this entire thread, and I must live on an alternate planet.
Of course we have those boorish dog owners who feel it’s beneath them to pick up after their dog, but I NEVER have heard of people using other people’s trash cans to dispose of the poop.
IN my neighborhood everyone keeps their trash cans against the house in the driveway, and they take them out to the curb the night before trash pickup.
My town charges $3 per trash barrel as long as it’s not overflowing. There are stickers you buy at Town Hall and affix to the uppermost bag. People – including myself – usually stuff this bag with household trash, tie it, and stuff it into the barrel on its side so there’s space to put the sticker.
I’ve never heard of anyone leaving their barrels out on the street all week
We also have a rather large neighborhood park, and the far side is reserved for the off-leash dog crowd. Everybody picks up AFAIK – it’s rare for me to find a mound of poop when I’m walking my dog around the perimeter.
I’m with the OP. Those little dog poop bags do little to contain the smell, especially in the summer. We put all of our dog poop bags into a designated receptacle in our garage lined with a white kitchen trash bag. When I pop the lid to drop in a small poop bag, the smell is very rank, especially by the end of the week. Hell, I usually take that white kitchen bag and put it into a larger black trash bag along with other trash, so our dog’s poop is triple bagged.
In any event, I would be annoyed if someone dropped a plain poop bag in my curbside trash bin, but not as pissed as I get when someone lets their dog poop on my driveway pavement and not pick it up. When we walk our dog, we carry the poop bag with us and bring it back home for disposal.
