I was horrified to discover today that a Facebook friend, a woman I worked with many years ago and have a great deal of respect for, was having problems with the neighbor's cat pooping in her vegetable garden so she decided to use a cayenne pepper spray as a cat deterrent. I tried to plead with her not to use it but have gotten no response.
As a cat lover, I am completely appalled that an otherwise reasonable person would consider this to be a humane response to a nuisance cat. She was also threatening to trap it and take it to the humane society or drop it in the woods, which is also an extreme an unreasonable solution too, if you ask me.
Here is this fuzzy fellow just looking for a place to do his business. He is completely unaware that his actions are causing any kind of a disturbance and now suddenly he is covered in cayenne pepper that is burning his little paws and stinging his eyes and he has absolutely no way to help himself or communicate his need for help. The only way he can clean himself is with his little pink tongue that is now burning and causing all kinds of digestive problems and excruciating pain that is similar to that of a urinary tract infection as the capsicum makes its way into his bladder. How is the cat's owner supposed to even know what is wrong with him when he shows up in a state of misery like this? Even if they knew he was covered in cayenne, how could they get him relief? A scenario like this could cost a loving pet owner hundreds of dollars in vet bills and the needless suffering of a critter whose only crime was trying to go to the bathroom.
This is animal cruelty, plain and simple.
Trapping a friendly neighborhood cat who you know belongs to one of your neighbors and turning him loose in the woods or taking him to the animal shelter is also cruel. For one, many of the local shelters kill the animals if they are not claimed or adopted within a certain length of time but even taking the animal to a no-kill shelter is unnecessarily cruel because this animal already has a home. The experience of being trapped and taken to a shelter will be traumatic for the cat and the family that is missing their fuzziest member. Not to mention, it is a waste of shelter resources.
If this is a feral cat, taking it to a shelter will most likely result in its termination. Some shelters will spay/neuter, clip ears and re-release into the wild but many do not.
I understand that there are farmers out there that need to protect their crops from animals and livestock but my strong opinion is that if you are a housewife who lives in the suburbs and grocery shops every other day of the week, maybe you shouldn't be unnecessarily and overwhelmingly cruel to your neighbor's cat.
If it were my cat I would hope my neighbor would come to me looking for a solution before resorting to such extreme measures. If I found out that my cat was poisoned intentionally with cayenne, that neighbor would be slapped with a vet bill and a law suit. Or maybe just slapped.
The whole idea that there are people out there that think torturing cats with cayenne is acceptable is just infuriating. It breaks my heart to think that this is something that a whole host of people are intentionally doing to cats and other animals.
Ugh. Stop. Just stop. Please, please please don't use cayenne pepper as a cat deterrent.