Letter: It’s a foe in feline form that should face our fury – not dogs

I agree with every point except for one, which I feel I must highlight – it isn’t dogs that are a menace to our society, it’s cats.

While your correspondent is concerned that we have allowed our public spaces to become a ‘dog toilet’, it is in fact cats that defecate freely in both public and private spaces – and unfortunately it is almost always other people’s private spaces. I regularly catch a local tabby relieving himself in my lavender, often brazenly eyeballing me as he does so, with clearly no shame or remorse. And before the cat apologist lobby retorts with ‘Yes, but they bury their poo’, let me assure you this one does not. His fecal vandalism is very much left on display, a twisted calling card so his victims know ‘I was here’.

In terms of the ‘threatening behaviour’ of dogs, this pales in comparison to cats. It is only by virtue of their pointlessly small size that we are safe from the swarm of cats currently plaguing our island. And our wildlife will testify to that, because any creature unfortunate enough to be even smaller than a cat is at very high risk of becoming cat lunch. The small mammals and bird life that cats kill far exceeds that of dogs, and what’s even more disturbing is that most of this ongoing massacre taking place right under our petunias does not seem motivated by hunger, it is only for the cat’s sick entertainment. Hasn’t every cat owner at some stage stumbled upon a half-dead shrew twitching in a blood-soaked mess on their kitchen floor, its eyes pleading just to be put out of its misery? Be honest. You know you have.

Cats are at best useless and at worst psychopathic serial killers, and yet for some reason we have allowed thousands upon thousands of them loose on our streets.

Finally, I would highlight the important professional and third sector roles that dogs fulfil in human society. Sheepdogs, police dogs, therapy dogs, rescue dogs, and guide dogs are all examples that immediately spring to mind. Imagine how these essential services would be provided without humanity’s true best friend working alongside us?

Do we really expect cats to take up these roles? I’m quite certain a ‘guide cat’ would intentionally lead its human companion into traffic rather than away from it. I’d honestly feel safer being guided by a chinchilla.

So in conclusion, your correspondent is right. We do have a four-legged menace in our midst and something must be done about it. But it is a foe in feline form that should face our fury, and not our trusted canine companions.

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