Garden and Cat Feces (Property / Legal Issue)

That was also my first thought.

: If you/your husband want that or can handle it emotionally, you could tell the neighbors directly that they should please inform you if there is feces on their property again. You then pick it up, bag it, and send the feces to a lab. Then the neighbors will know, in case they lied (that YOUR! cats were seen), that their lie will be exposed and will presumably refrain from making such claims in the future. Depending on what your cats look like, it could also simply be a case of mistaken identity.

Otherwise, I agree with you, at the described places it is more likely that martens, hedgehogs, etc. defecate, rather than cats.

However, I would still send the feces left on your driveway to a lab once, at least initially without communicating it.

I took a look at it, the cost is €85, which honestly is a bit too expensive for me, especially since the result doesn't say anything conclusive regardless. Also, you need several samples for that and they have to be kept somehow refrigerated, and I'm not putting that stuff in the fridge now...

I have decided to wait and not devote any more life time to this nonsense for now. If I see them we can talk about it again. However, I also have to dispose of what other animals (both neighborhood and wild) leave on my property, and I'm not going to participate in this kindergarten they started. I will ignore it as long as possible, and if it gets out of hand we will consider legal steps. It doesn't have to be a lawyer right away, you can first ask them to leave the property in writing, if needed install a camera, and report it to the police if necessary. Before that, I would try to talk to the mayor.

We will not play the garbage disposal service for the pets of the entire street in the long run.

What does that mean concretely? Natural living in the sense of "like in nature" is absolutely nothing like what we do with pets – whether prey or predator.

Cats run around outside and poop where all the other animals also poop. Wherever they happen to be standing/walking/flying. If someone piles up a sandy beach, they have to live with the fact that all animals dig around or poop in it. If you want to live sterilely, you have to fence yourself in or install deterrents like a marten repellent. An alternative for such a type of person might also be a concrete bunker. If someone keeps quails, mice, rats, chickens, etc., then they have to make sure that animals don't get near them outside. "Fox, you stole the goose" is not the newest song. Have fun with the popcorn.

Cats run around outside and poop where all the other animals also poop. Wherever they are just standing/walking/flying around.

If someone piles up a sandy beach, they have to live with all the animals digging around in it or pooping in it. If you want to live sterile, you have to fence yourself in or install deterrent measures, such as a marten repellent. An alternative for this type of person might also be the concrete bunker.

If someone keeps quails, mice, rats, chickens, etc., then they have to make sure that animals don’t get to them from outside. "Fox, you stole the goose" is not the newest song.

Have fun with the popcorn.

You're ruining my popcorn ;-).

What you write here, I also see that way. But that has NOTHING to do with "species-appropriate" - I thought because of the term that something entirely different was coming.

My suggestion: Offer the neighbors to set up a wildlife camera (approx. 80 - 300€) in their garden to film which animal is pooping there. Do the same in your own garden. If you know the cat's owner, you could ask them to regularly dispose of the droppings at the place where they appear. If that is not done or the owner is stubborn, I would set up a live trap (around 70€) and "take the animal into custody" for a few days. Wait and see what happens and watch the owner's long face when you put the cage in front of their door -That would actually be my favorite :) For dogs, put a sign in the garden with a text like "Toxic treats for free" ;-) oh yes, and: If I had too much time, I would combine a wildlife camera with a mini sprinkler to scare the animal away with water.

Addition as a variant: One could also ask the owner of the cat to install their own litter box in one's garden, which they would then have to empty regularly.

Well, that's mostly nonsense now. Animal cruelty is a criminal offense, and I don't want to go into that in detail. Scaring off animals without harming them (your idea with water is both cheap and simple - I think it's called Reiherschreck or something) is no problem at all if someone wants to do that. We even provide a litter box outside. But cats in the wild don't just quickly run home to be leashed.

I also don't know where this demand always comes from that simply identifying the cat owner - that is, the cat in ONE case - should lead to any claims against them? Local courts have been arguing about that for decades, and the unanimous opinion in most rulings was that 1-2 cats per property should be tolerated - including their droppings. Only in exceptional cases where people kept large numbers of cats and excessive impairment of the neighboring property could be proven do I know of cat owners being forced to take measures. The almost unanimous opinion of the courts so far has been that cats belong to (rural) life and to some extent are not grounds for complaint.

I also have to clean up what neighbor cats leave on my property, but I just don't get the idea to look for someone to blame for it and put it in front of their door.