Expert: Tina - 12/12/2008

Question
We have a sand play area for kids in our estate. Recently we started noticing stray cats faeces in the sand. Consequently, we have closed the play ground while we are considering how to keep the Cats away from the this area. We understand the Cats like to poo in the sand and the sandy playground is just perfect for them. Can you suggest how to keep the Cats away from the sand playground?

Answer
Hi Toni,

First of all let me reassure you that cats' feces pose minimal health risk to children. A study done at Stanford University found that feral cats posed no significant public health risk:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/about.html

However it is understandable that everyone would want to minimize contact with feces. Here are my suggestions:

1. It is possible that some or all of the cats are not actually homeless but actually belong to neighborhood residents and are allowed to roam. You may want to make up some fliers about the problem you've experienced and place them in mailboxes in the neighborhood, asking residents to ensure their cats war visible ID and encouraging them to keep cats indoors or contained to their property - for their own safety as well as to prevent them from using the playground as a litterbox.

2. Since cats generally move around most at night, and the cats are likely visiting the playground at night when no noisy public are present, you can use motion activated lights or noise makers to discourage them. You can also use a nontoxic cat repellent like this one:
http://www.critter-repellent.com/cat/cat-deterrent.php

3. Since there will always be cats in the area - whether pet cats roaming or stray cats, you may want to set up a sand box specifically for the cats! Providing them with a place where the children do not go will solve the problem on a permanent basis, without harming any animals or costing much money. Simply set up a small sandbox maybe 5' x 5' with playground sand. Place any feces or soiled sand you have found in the playground into the new cat box to attract the cats. In fact you can also add a product called Cat Attract (sold at Petsmart and online) to the sand to attract the cats to the proper litter area.

4. Homeless cats are a neighborhood problem. Residents who do not have their pets spayed and neutered and allow their pets to roam - as well as irresponsible and cruel people who abandon unwanted pets (often not spayed or neutered) create the problem. The unspayed/neutered cats reproduce and the number of homeless cats can quickly grow. Sometimes people try to solve this problem by trapping the cats and turning them in to the humane society, where they are immediately euthanized as "feral" cats. Not only is this tragic for the cats - who are not to blame for simply existing - but it does not provide a permanent solution. Cats from surrounding areas soon move in to fill the niche vacated by the removed cats, and quickly expand to fill the void. The most effective way to control the numbers of homeless cats in any area is a twofold approach:

A. promoting spay and neuter of pets through voucher programs and low cost spay-neuter clinics

B. Humane trap-neuter-return programs, run by volunteers who trap homeless cats, get them spayed or neutered and vaccinated at low cost clinics, and return them to the place they were found. Volunteers feed the cats on a daily basis, which allows them to encourage the cats to stay in one place, and identify any new cats who are freshly abandoned or move in from another area... and quickly trap them for spay/neuter. A population of vaccinated, spayed and neutered cats provides a buffer against wildlife and roaming cats that may come in from other areas, since cats are territorial.

For more information about managing homeless cats in your neighborhood, please visit:

http://www.alleycat.org