Rocky’s owner Samantha Davies has been sent a letter by Rotherham Council requesting that she take steps to keep her cat within the perimeter of her garden and home, in future. The council had received complaints about Rocky. Their letter is the equivalent of an Animal ASBO! Yes, fellow cat lovers, we have an outdoor cat doing his usual thing, behaving naturally, minding his own business being served with an Animal ASBO. It’s a disgrace. It is shortsightedness and heavy-handedness on behalf of the Council 😉
Note for non-UK visitors: an ASBO is an order restricting a person’s activities because of prior anti-social behavior. It stands for anti-social behaviour order.
Samantha makes a good point in saying
“How can a cat behaves antisocially? It’s an animal, it’s a pet – he’s not going to bite your leg off, drink alcohol in the street or try and rob your phone.”
Well said Samantha. The point she is making is that Rocky is an outdoor cat and behaves normally.
Rocky says,
“People need to understand me. I don’t like to be touched on my bottom and hind legs and I don’t like my tail to be pulled. I don’t like strangers trying to frighten me. I mind my own business so they should mind there’s as well. I can live in harmony with people if they just leave me alone. I am not a frightening cat. If people are frightened of me it is because they have an irrational fear of cats.” (Rocky has a degree from Cambridge University in cat psychology).
I agree with Rocky. I think this is heavy handedness by the council who are responding to unjustified complaints by the residents in the area where he lives. I feel that the residents are troublemakers. They may even have a grudge against the owner Samantha Davies. There may be a bit of history behind this. The trouble is this; the Council cannot interview Rocky to find out why he bit the person. It was almost certainly highly justified because the domestic cat does not bite people willy-nilly for the hell of it or the fun of it. A cat may bite a person but it will be for a good reason and nearly always in defence. Cats do not attack people as if they are prey! Cats aren’t that stupid. Although some people think they do that which tells me that people can be stupid.
There are wider issues despite the funny side to this story. The wider issue is this: should cats be allowed to go outdoors? This is a never ending discussion and one which takes place a lot in the United States of America where, as we know, a significant percentage of people keep their cats indoors full-time. One reason why they keep them indoors is to protect them from people who don’t like cats and to stop people complaining about cats roaming around streets etc..
Not everyone likes cats and I think this story is about that. It is about some people in the area not liking cats and if the cat is quite bold and confident and doesn’t run away every time he sees a person then the person who does not like cats may come into conflict with that cat. It is the battle between cat lovers and cat haters.
Samantha Davies is a council tenant and therefore she may be in breach of her tenancy agreement if she fails to comply with the request from the council so no doubt she will keep Rocky inside from now on it because if not she may lose her home. The council home in Britain is a valuable asset.
Ruth I hope you get good neighbours you deserve good people next door to you. As for poor Rocky there seems to be a shift in people expecting cats to stay indoors more and more and it was never like this. Cats have always been known as a free spirit and Rotherham Council should have educated themselves on cat behaviour before blaming Rocky. How cowardly blaming a cat! They should be damn well ashamed! They could do a lot of damage to cat welfare and also start a precedence! Ridiculous!
If I was her I’d move to where Rocky can live his life as a cat is entitled to without idiots complaining about his behaviour, if they left him alone to do what cats do he wouldn’t bother anyone.
It’s like poking a bees or wasps next then complaining if you are stung.
Some people are so stupid!
How easy would it be for her to find another council home?
In our area the council are forced to provide someone with an exchange home, but there are also plenty of private landlords who rent houses out, there was long lists to choose from and we persevered researching them until we found this one in a cat friendly place. If things got bad for our cats here we’d not rest until we found somewhere else, their safety and quality of life comes first.
Yes, she definitely needs to move then.
I’d love to know what “crimes” poor Rocky committed.
I’ll have to google about council homes because Michael writes that they are valuable assets. I’m not seeing that something not owned could be an asset. But, I’m going to guess that one is more favorable than an apartment.
Most are not in very nice areas, which is why we rent privately, but the council do keep the houses themselves up to standard, where with a private rental it’s a battle to get anything done. Our landlady is a good one but not well off and she does what she can, it’s a low rent in comparison with similar houses and she never bothers us so we give and take and try to do what we can to keep the house and gardens nice. Right now the window hinge needs renewing, it’s the one the cats come and go by and Walter is a bit of a yoyo lol so we don’t expect her to pay for that but in a council house they would pay. They put new kitchens and doors and windows regularly where ours are old but it suits us fine to live here as long as the cats are safe.
A private rental, a landlady that doesn’t give you grief, safe for the boyz, and a do-it-yourself small repair once in a while? You’re exactly in the right place, I would say. Just for the peace of knowing that my cats were safe, I wouln’t care if the cabinets were falling off the wall.
Yes Dee we don’t either 🙂 as in fact they almost are lol
If it wasn’t for the next door neighbours it would be Paradise, hopping and praying we get someone decent in the one the layabout man has just vacated, we know we have a month’s grace until he hands the keys back to the agency. The other side is just dog noise which is irritating, especially in the night, but not constant, the landlord is his own dad so it’s a battle to get him to see our point of view.
Live and let live is OK as long as our cats are safe.
I don’t know what a council home means.
But, it seems that Samantha has no coice but to keep her cat indoors.
That should not really be cumbersome, as many USA cats are completely indoors and adjust well.
Hi Dee. A council home is a home owned by the local authority (city council) who rent out the home at below market rates for poorer people.
I agree she has no choice but to keep her cat in now otherwise there will be more complaints and she can be evicted by the council if she is in breach of her tenancy agreement.