Cat using soft-top as scratchboard - Help

mattymoo

All these threats of making the neighbours pay for the damage caused by their cats is rubbish.

Although morally they might be responsible the legal system treats cats as independent animals and nobody is responsible for their behaviour. In other words, if you sued them, the courts would reject the claim.

Owners are responsible for the actions of their dogs though. They are treated differently in law.

5th paragraph here - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/if-your-pet-hates-are-vets-bills-take-cover-1307189.html

Pont

Thanks for the link mattymoo. I think you were referring to the statement,
'Cats........are officially viewed as semi-wild and beyond an owner's control'.

However, I have just found:-

http://www.cats.org.uk/catcare/leaflets/EG10-Catsandthelaw.pdf
'However, cat owners have a general duty at law to take reasonable care to ensure that their cats do not cause injury to people or damage to property. In practice, cases involving damage to property or injury to people by cats are few and far between'.

Don't really want to fall out with neighbours, but it seems that if I have spoken to them, maybe put my gripe in writing, taken photographic evidence, then the law would agree that they have not taken reasonable care to ensure their cat does not damage my car.

My understanding is that cats are defined in the eyes of the law as 'property' or 'things'. Doesn't it then follow on that if my neighbours property damages my property, they are then responsible to make good the damage?

flang

I find the best way to stop my cat from scratching/clawing things it to get some cardboard and cover it upside down parcel tape. Stick the tape covered cardboard on top of the car and the cat will never scratch/claw the car again even when the carboard/tape has been removed! (it really works my cat never scratches the sofa now!)

diable

Next time you find the cat scratching your soft top, grab hold of it and when you are folding your roof away stuff in the compartment as well, then go for a 30 mile drive and put the roof up before coming back.

diable

flang wrote: »

I find the best way to stop my cat from scratching/clawing things it to get some cardboard and cover it upside down parcel tape. Stick the tape covered cardboard on top of the car and the cat will never scratch/claw the car again even when the carboard/tape has been removed! (it really works my cat never scratches the sofa now!)

Hmmm now that's an idea, might be worth cutting the cardboard into 1" pieces and using a strong contact adhesive (cover the roof with some plastic beforehand) as I would love to see your neighbours faces when the cat walks back in with small pieces of cardboard stuck to him which they then have to remove from a scratching and biting cat.

mattymoo

Pont - interesting link there. Prompted me to do a bit more searching and I found these.

http://www.messybeast.com/retro-legal.htm
https://www.animalfriends.org.uk/afi_blogs/are-cats-above-the-law.html

As I said in my first post, we are talking legal responsibilities here. Moral duties are a separate issue and the owner may agree they have a moral duty towards you.

However, if relations break down between you and you decide to litigate, I suspect it will be a road to nowhere.

The only proviso I could find was about a cats propensity to nip or bite. If a cat displays such behaviour towards humans then the owner ought to guard against it. I suspect for instance they would be criticised if they left the cat alone with an infant sleeping in a pram. I'm not sure if you can get cat muzzles.

Whilst researching this post I did find a lot of people recommending super soaker water pistols. These spray quite a jet of water. Apparently you need to be out of sight of the animal when you spray. Wait for it to settle on the roof then blast away. Two or three such attacks and it will start to associate the car roof with getting wet and stay away.

I now have visions of you sat in full camouflage gear, hiding behind the wheelie bins waiting for the cat with water pistol locked and loaded

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

The only reason the cat is going on the roof of your car is because a soft-top is warm. That's it. Remove the warmth, and it will go elsewhere.

The easiest way to do this is to firstly ensure your roof is adequately waterproofed, and then to keep a cold wet towel on the roof for a few weeks. Cats don't like cold wet towels.

mikey72

What have you asked the neighbour to do to stop the cat, (if they eventually agree to do anything)?

Pont

Thanks for all of your replies - particularly like the sticky cardboard idea.

Mattymoo - I took a look at your links, very interesting. The first one refers to the 1971 Act which states that cats have the right to roam. However, my previous link refers to the same Act which states that cat owners have to take reasonable care etc. It seem like the 1971 Act is as clear as well........mud!

The water pistol technique is oft suggested - I've resorted to chucking 2 gallon buckets of water when I see the cat on the car. So far has not done anything useful other than give me biceps that any championship weightlifter would be proud of! Full wet gear and a snorkel would perhaps be the appropriate gear as I end up getting soaked rather than the b****y cat!

Pew Pew - could possibly throw wet towel over the car after drying myself off (see above)! However, have the feeling that the cat would probably wait till it's dry, don it's shades, put up a parasol, then lie on it to sunbathe!

Mikey - All I've done so far is alert my neighbours (in a friendly way) of the problem. I asked them to check that their cat isn't on my car when it goes outside. I don't know what else I can ask them to do at the moment as I'm trying to keep it all low key.

SUESMITH_2

my dad had a lot of problems with cats in his garden - he used to keep a waterpistol and some small pebbles next to the window and when he saw a cat it either got a shot of water or a small stone thrown at it, and yes it was funny watching him lurk behind the curtain. waterpisotols seemed more effective than just chucking water over them.