Fox snare used to stop pet cat fouling jacuzzi

A HOUSEHOLDER who tried everything he could think of to stop his neighbour’s cat fouling his jacuzzi, before trapping it in a fox snare, has been warned he could go to jail if he targets the pet again.

Laurence Brown (60) tried putting up screens and putting down pepper and lion dung after the cat repeatedly defecated in the outdoor hot tub. But a court was told that his efforts “appeared only to make his neighbour’s pet more determined”.

He bought a fox snare online and set it at a spot where the cat was squeezing through the fence that divided his garden from his neighbour’s. Susan Campbell, prosecuting, told Falkirk Court: “The owners of the cat in question are neighbours of the accused. His garden backs onto their garden, and the gardens are separated by a six-foot fence.

“On June 22 the owner of the cat heard a yowling noise coming from the area of the fence. He saw his cat dashing and realised that she had a piece of wire round her neck. It was a loop of yellow wire with a small metal fixing and there was no stopper on the device which would have prevented it from continuing to tighten. He got some scissors and cut it off. The cat was not injured.”

Brown, a lorry driver from Falkirk in central Scotland, initially told his neighbour when he was challenged about the incident that he was trying to catch foxes.