Cats in bird feeder

[timjones]

Has anyone else ever experienced cats eating out of their feeders? The house across the road has a bunch of cats. I don't think they feed them. The last couple of weeks there have been some of them coming over and eating out of the ground feeder I have. Right now I have kind of a general mix in there but once it snows we put in cracked corn for the pheasants. I have been chasing them away when I see them but I think they raid it a night sometimes because there has been several times we have filled it in the afternoon and it will be empty the next morning. Is there a solution to this problem other than just chasing them away when I see them?

[Jim Almquist]

I don't know how much you like or care for your neighbors but other then calling the humane society the only other solution is to take the cats out with something in a small caliber. If they are that hungry that they will eat seed who knows how many pheasant chicks and song birds they have eaten. It might seem a little cruel but starving a cat is not the most humane thing to do.Just so you know we have 4 cats in our house and I have brought 3 of them home. I saved 2 of them off my friends farm because the mother left them and I did not want the critters to get them. The wife was mad as heck with the last one but she is now our favorite and they are ALL fixed.

[timjones]

I thought about a 22 short from the old single shot bolt action but my wife doesn't think the same way I do. I wonder if a shot from the paint ball gun would scare them enough to keep them away. Don't really talk to the neighbors anymore except when I go over to complain about their dog digging up our yard or doing his business on our deck. They don't seem to care. Called the sheriff to complain last year and all I got was "We don't do animal control. Todd county doesn't have any animal control". Their two dogs terrorize anyone that walks down the road. Have friends down the road that won't even walk up this way anymore.

[MN Shutterbug]

Maybe you should be using the paint ball gun on your neighbors' dogs.

[Steve Foss]

Or on your neighbors.

Sorry, just couldn't resist that one. Like relatives, we can't control who our neighbors are.

While many sheriff's departments don't service stray animals, aggressive animal complaints are part of a sheriff's department's duties, just like serving paper, writing speeding tickets and responding to all the other calls typical of law enforcement. While reporting your neighbors' wandering cats isn't the type of thing the sheriff will respond to, if they leave their dogs loose and their dogs terrorize people, that is a criminal negligence and should be reported at once. Your friends down the road can speak to the sheriff to back you up as well.

If the sheriff's department won't act on an aggressive dog complaint, contact the Minnesota Attorney General's Office and file a formal complaint.

I'd get a paintball gun and use it on any of your neighbors' stray cats or dogs on your property. Also get a big can of the highest concentration pepper spray you can find, and if one of the dogs comes at you, give it the gas and let it cry all day.