Editor:
I’m writing in response to a request for help from a lady, a few months ago, who had problems with neighbours’ cats in her yard.
They were using her yard as a litter box and hunting down squirrels and birds, to her distress. I, too, have the same problem.
A Smithsonian study estimated pet cats in the U.S. kill 1.5 billion birds and 2.5 billion mammals a year.
I have tried many of the recommended methods to keep them out, including chasing them out with a water gun, but they always come back. My latest tool is a weatherproof metal cat with marble eyes, called a scare cat, that I bought online and mounted in a tree. It’s supposed to work, as cats don’t like conflict. So far so good, but time will tell if it works.
Ian Anderson, Gibsons
