Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi, we have 2 cats one who will be 16 next week and the other 3.5 years old.

We have neighbors on 3 sides, 2 of which we have no problem with. The other side (to the left in the back garden) have put rows and rows of carpet grippers with sharp rusty nails sticking out all over their fence on their side.

These are all council owned houses and we have had the council here but nothing has been done yet. One of the 2 council people that came said that he was a dog person and the other lady said she would send them a letter.

I've rung the RSPCA several times but they won't get involved unless an animal is injured and we can prove it was the nails in the carpet grippers!

We are not allowed to point our cctv that way so getting proof seems impossible.

We are not sure what the law is regarding this but I would have thought they would have needed permission from the council for putting up the carpet grippers and if no permission was given I can't see why after months they have not been made to remove the carpet grippers.

The grippers are not on the top of the fence they are all over the fence panels on their side.

We see this as a cruel tool for injury not as a deterrent.

Our younger cat goes over there and has been injured and we are really upset about this and I am getting to the point of jumping over and taking them down myself. However this would put me on the wrong side of the law and might put our secure tenancy in jeopardy.

Our older cat stopped climbing fences about a year ago but if he was chased over that way he could get really hurt not being as agile as he used to be. We recently got his diabetes into remission with insulin and obviously want to protect him and keep him as well as possible. We brought him with us to the UK from NZ when he was about 2.5. Cat's are as much a part of our family as our human children. Less trouble though (just kidding)
There are other people with cats and kids in the area and our other concern is that what if children kick a ball over and think it's over there and climb the fence. They could end up with severe injury's. Myself and my wife expressed these concerns to the council.

When we were on better terms with the neighbors in question some years ago they told us they have friends at the Council and we have no doubt that this is in fact true.

What else can we do apart from keep the cats inside and put cat safe deterrents our side (both of which we have tried) But this does not work nor keep other people's cats and children safe.

I would have written here sooner but I fully expected our Council (Canterbury) to be able to act sooner.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

I sympathise with both you and your neighbour. We had our neighbour's kids constantly climbing into the garden (even though we repeatedly said we had no problem sending the ball back over), our worry was that they'd fall and severely injure themselves and no-one find them for ages. We've also had our shed broken into by ne're-do-wells in the past. Unfortunately, they may also have a problem with ALL the neighbourhood cats marking their territory in their garden (our firtree is now a shade of brown on one side) and thus the plan is to pretty much keep all cats out.
Sooooo....whereas I sympathise with the neighbours reasoning, I think they are over reacting. As has been proved, cats don't take heed, kids can be brainless, and thieves overcome such things with a simple bit of thick carpet thrown over. What your neighbour is doing is sort of legal, but is someone climbs the wall and gets injured they can be sued. The law is not very sympathetic towards burglars, but would be to brainless kids. If it was deemed that your neighbour KNEW it was likely to have kids coming over the wall he would likely be sued. Alas, I dare say no one would be interested in cats, especially as some people would be suffering from universal marking too.
Are there any kids adjacent to your neighbour?
Also, has he put these up on a shared wall? Because that's your wall too, possibly. You might want to check your rights.
It's best to try and talk to your neighbour and go over my points, but I know how awkward neighbours can be. They wouldn't have gone to this trouble if they didn't have a bee in their bonnet. They might come around after a couple of months when they realise the whole thing was a waste of time and made no difference at all.
One more idea - talk to your vet. Can you charge them for vets bills?
Good luck, I hope it gets resolved without too much neighbourly stress

Cats can be a bit of a legalistic nightmare, because they are not classified as livestock and the law isn't even clear about ownership. Cats and dogs are both owned in the eyes of the law but treated differently because a dog's owner is legally responsible for having it under control whereas cats have the 'right to roam' so owners can't be held responsible. If you run over a dog it must be reported to the police, whereas a cat doesn't, for instance. On the flip side that can mean that wandering onto other people's property is the cat's problem and not the landowner's.

You might have some luck looking into details of EU laws that mean prisons which use razor or barbed wire and/or dogs have to pay fines. I don't know the ins and outs, all I know is what I've said there, but it could be worth a closer look.

Thanks for your post.

Yes there are children everywhere around here and we live at the very end of a Close so the next street is only separated by a fence or 2 where more children live and kick footballs around.

Another user on another site sent me through a helpful link which mentions carpet grippers. I plan on taking it into the council this week and see what they say.

Perhaps this link put here might assist others in the future.

This is the link and carpet grippers are mentioned near the end

https://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/g ... and-gates/

While it is definitely the expensive option, you might want to consider talking to a solicitor, I believe there are 'duty of care' laws that mean you have a responsibility to make sure that reasonable measures are in place to ensure that anyone coming onto your property isn't hurt, this includes not putting anything that could cause harm along the tops of fences etc. It is one reason why there is a market for the rubber strips with rubber spikes on them, they are extremely uncomfortable to but your weight on, but in the end won't do actual damage. If you feel comfortable talking to your neighbour about it, you might suggest them as a better alternative to deter anyone (or anything) entering his garden.