Editor:
A letter in last Friday’s paper suggests that pet cats should not be subject to the same bylaws as dogs (“Really, a cat bylaw?”). The writer’s rather weak argument is based on an experience with a particular dog and with their own “big wimp” of a cat, that “loves to run free and has only brought home a snake and a mouse” in two years. What the writer is missing here is that both cats and dogs that are allowed to run free create nuisances for their neighbours. We repeatedly step in feces from a neighbour’s dog that does not like to poop too close to her own house, so sometimes uses our yard. Even worse are the cats who roam freely. They stalk and kill songbirds at our feeder, and leave their poop in our vegetable garden (would Monsieur like a little toxoplasmosis with his arugula?). Having lived with cats, and knowing others who have, I know that cats can live perfectly happily indoors, rather than being allowed to spend their days as a feral animal. So, sure, why shouldn’t the bylaws apply equally to cats and dogs, even if your animal is, in your eyes, that special exception? And, incidentally, both my wife and I are quite mystified as to why some people who do bag their dog’s poop so often leave the bags on top of or inside Coast Reporter boxes or dangling from tree branches.
Kaye Miller, Roberts Creek
