Millions of greedy cats across Britain are sneaking into a neighbour’s house for extra food, a study shows.
Almost half (43%) of all pet lovers with a moggy living nearby confess to secretly feeding it behind the owners’ back, and more than two-thirds (69%) of those actually buy cat food especially for the cat.
Carried out ahead of International Cat Day (Tuesday 8th August) the research, by Burns Pet Nutrition, found that neighbours also feed cats cans of tuna (23%), cow’s milk (20%) and human food (19%).
Over half of Brits (51%) feel an attachment to a neighbour’s cat and one in ten people even treat it like one of their own.
It goes so far that more than one in four (27%) of people would even contribute to their neighbour’s cat’s vet bill given how much they feed them.
It proves that cat owners have a right to be worried. Some of their biggest fears are their cat being overfed (33%) and being fed something that is poisonous (38%).
Other fears include their feline getting into a fight or being attacked by another animal (47%), being held against their will (32%), getting attacked by a human (30%) and liking another family more than their own (20%).
Cat lover Anne Edwards, of Chelmsford, Essex, said: “Our moggy Archie is a big boy at almost 7kg and has an appetite to match. He’s always hungry.
“Our neighbour doesn’t intentionally feed him, but Archie’s been caught on more than one occasion nipping in through their cat flap and pinching their cat’s food.”
John Burns MBE, founder of Burns Pet Nutrition, said: “It is understandable that many cats chance their luck for extra food but that doesn’t mean we, as neighbours, should be feeding them.
“We are unaware of any potential allergies that cat may have, and it may be on a strict diet. For example, one in five people feed a neighbour’s cat cow’s milk unaware that most cats are lactose intolerant so this can make them ill.
“Many human foods can disrupt a cat’s tummy too. Our advice is to avoid feeding any neighbour’s cats and not to get too attached, so you aren’t encouraged to entice the cat back with food.”
