UK: Middle Class Neighbours Fight Over Cat Poop

This is a little vignette of a cat story from middle England and the middle class. I wonder how Americans would behave in comparison to these two Brits. It depends on the person; that must be the answer.

cat in garden
Cat in a garden. Cats don’t know human boundaries. Photo by Jay Woodworth
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

A dispute arose between two middle class neighbours when they came to blows over that perennially tricky problem between neighbours when one of them looks after a cat while the other does not and the cat defecates in the garden belonging to the person who does not have a cat.

In this instance, Douglas Pidgeon, aged 60, became infuriated with his next door neighbour because his neighbour’s cat was fouling his garden. I can understand Mr Pidgeon’s feelings. He quite probably has a nice garden and takes pride in it.

Mr Pidgeon threw the cat poop back over the hedge that divided the two properties. The man with the cat, Matthew Lucas, aged 38, discovered what had happened and then confronted Mr Pidgeon. An argument ensued which progressed to a tussle which in turn led to blood being spilled when there was a clash of heads.

It appears – and I am reading between the lines – that Mr Lucas made a complaint to the police which led to Mr Pidgeon being prosecuted for assault. Mr Pidgeon was cleared of assault in the Magistrate’s Court.

As mentioned, this is the kind of problem which can cause conflict between neighbours which is always highly unfortunate because they have to live close to each other – they need to get along. The big question is this: who is primarily at fault?

Perhaps the answer, as usual, is a common sense one and a compromise. Mr Lucas could and probably should have done more to ensure that his cat did not defecate on Mr Pidgeon’s garden if he was aware of his neighbour’s feelings about it. And Mr Pidgeon possibly could have dealt with the matter more diplomatically. The only solution, now, in this instance, would be to prevent the cat going onto the neighbour’s garden.

A lot of people don’t mind other people’s cats coming into their garden but some people do mind and I think their opinion should be respected. There is no law in the UK which says that a cat is trespassing when he or she goes into another person’s garden. Neither is the cat owner vicariously liable for the trespass of his cat and therefore there is nothing illegal in the process. Ultimately it is down to the people doing their best to act as a reasonably as possible.

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

29 thoughts on “UK: Middle Class Neighbours Fight Over Cat Poop”

  1. Without knowing how the neighbours got on together before this happened there is no way to say who is in the wrong, it’s definitely an overreaction to throw the poop back, why not just dig it into the garden, on the other hand has the cat owner got more animals or rowdy kids, all of which could make a nuisance of themselves and have driven the neighbour to finally hit back. We don’t know (and neither do you Woody above but any cat owner is found guilty without a trial in your court)it’s just a shame they couldn’t sort it out amongst themselves without attention seeking and making it public.
    I agree with Ruth that untrained dogs are a far bigger nuisance than any cat is, try living next door to a huge dog that barks, in the garden, unchecked by it’s stay at home owner, from 9am until around 10.15pm on one side and two out of control terriers that are put in cages in a kitchen with the window open during the owners working hours and on their nights out and you will understand that living next door to a cat that occasionally c***s in your garden would be some sort of paradise!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to TruthBeTold Cancel reply

follow it link and logo