Cat Poo In Garden Law – Know Your Rights

There is nothing that can ruin stepping outside into your garden on a sunny day quite as much as finding it full of cat poop. It’s smelly, sticky, potentially harmful and can be hidden in a variety of places. Nowhere is safe, your garden beds, sandpits, gravelly areas or even your lawn – wherever your local feline population seems to prefer! So what is the cat poo in garden law?

The Quick Answer

Unfortunately, the law is against homeowners when it comes to cats pooping in gardens and using them as their personal litter tray. They have the Right to Roam and can do as they please!

Why Do Cats Poo In Other People’s Gardens?

It can seem infuriating that cats generally avoid going to the toilet in their own gardens. This is down to a survival trait that developed in these animals when they were still wild kitties and is down to one major factor, the smell.

We can all agree that cat poop is very smelly and a distinct sign that there is a cat nearby and that is exactly why they don’t do it where they live. They don’t like to leave signposts to any potential predators in their own territory.

In the wild, this is a sensible move but our domesticated cats haven’t realised yet that they don’t need to go to these lengths to hide their poo.

Of course, the knowledge of why cats do this doesn’t make dealing with it any easier. So your next course of action when you have a cat poop problem is to work out what to do and how to deal with it best.

What is the Cat Poo in Garden Law?

The law might seem like an obvious place to start when you have nuisance cats visiting your garden and using it as a toilet but unfortunately, the law isn’t on your side. In fact, there is not cat poo in garden law that protects homeowners. 

Cats are considered to be animals that are covered by a ‘right to roam’ law which means that a cat owner doesn’t have an obligation to keep the animal on their own property. This means that technically that trespassing cat in your garden is not trespassing at all.

Cats Right to Roam Law

This doesn’t mean that cats don’t fall under the same duty of care laws that all domesticated animals are protected by. The owner does have a responsibility to care for the cat and ensure their needs are met.

Unfortunately for neighbours, one of these welfare issues is that any pet animals have a right to be able to exhibit normal behaviour – which for a cat is exploring its environment.

There are also several more laws that are protecting roaming kitties from harm and means you have to be careful when trying to deal with repelling a cat from your garden.

Cats are considered property which means that you have to be careful when trying to deal with one. Any damage inflicted on the cat is covered under animal welfare acts and criminal damage acts.

So, no matter how infuriated you get, make sure anything you do is not going to land you in trouble. Hurting an animal is never a solution, not only is it against the law but the problem that you are annoyed with isn’t the animal’s fault. They are usually just behaving in a way natural to their species or as a result of human training.

So, with the law against you, there is little you can do from this aspect. In rare cases, you may be able to bring a public nuisance law claim against your neighbour but you would have to prove that the cats were being kept in circumstances that cause material discomfort or annoyance to the public in general.

This is rarely used and would generally only apply to homes with a large number of cats or cats that were not being well cared for.

So, it is unlikely that your neighbour’s cat choosing to use your garden as a toilet would be considered a public nuisance.

What Can Be Done to Deter Cats?

With the law on the side of your neighbours and their cats, you have to use other methods to keep the cat poop out of your garden. Luckily there are lots of methods you can use that can help to keep the cats out of your garden.

Take a look at the information on cat deterrents and harmless ways to keep cats out of your garden. There are a lot of snippets of advice and products you can buy and add to your garden that will help to keep your garden free from pesky cats and their poop.

PestBye Motion-Activated Cat Scarer

If you're looking for the highest-rated, best-quality ultrasonic cat scarers on the market then this pair from Pestbye are truly the best in the business:

View on Amazon Learn More
05/15/2021 02:03 pm GMT


Unfortunately, the law is not your friend when it comes to dealing with cats that are using your garden as their own personal litter tray. Instead, you need to try to use preventative measures that stop cats from entering your garden in the first place. 

We have an exhaustive guide packed full of tips, tricks and ideas for deterring cats which you can check out here

4 thoughts on “Cat Poo In Garden Law – Know Your Rights”

  1. This article is not accurate, in many many places cats have no right to roam. Check your local ordinances and animal control policies. Figure out if your shelters are no-kill or not before calling the authorities as well.

  2. Would one be breaking any law if you pick up your neighbour’s cat’s poop, cctv evidence from your garden and at night put it on their doorstep so they get a taste of what’s been happening to me when in my own garden???


Leave a Comment