Cats and heartache

Hi all.
I've looked for a gentle non invasive way to rid my area of cats or their owners. .where I am there are about 20 places where over 60 cats live. Of a night it's like a road show of lights when you turn a corner and see the creatures scuttle into drains or over fences. .
I have nearly finished the front yard but the closer I get to the end point the more cat poop I find. Natives planted with pea straw decomposing and mulch to go over top soon.
Now, short of screaming at the neighbors, which I have done via less than gentle talking and sending of photos I am at my wits end. My inside dog barks of a night and of a day I am the recipient of more poop. Not his.
Four days ago, my unfinished but in use hot house was decimated by fighting cats or cat on possum and I lost 2000 seedlings about to be placed thinned to cell pots, and lost close to 7000 seed stock cos I'd left them on a bench I was working on, went Inside for dinner and ....My now new compost will be interesting next season.. . I was waiting on a delivery of cell pot trays from Qld and just cancelled the order as I now have about 190 maybe viable stock left.
Cat traps don't work here
Council feels for my plight but no regulation to register cats or keep them inside.
If I catch a domestic I have to release it and only have over feral.
If my dog came and pooped in people's yard every night or wandered into their back yards there'd be hell to pay but not a single cat owner I have approached seems to think it's their freaking cat in my yard.
I thought maybe a slight weight gain lead pellet right ear was a great idea until I realised I am in a now residential area and don't own a pellet shooter anyway..
Please, some help, I am so sad. I lost my entire seedling crops, the jade cuttings are all messed up, the damage bill to the hot house itself is about $400/600ish and it all happened before I could pull my boots back on.

Janine so sorry for the loss of all your plants. I don't know how to help, the council should be taking a better part in this. Take pictures maybe and report to the police.

[QUOTE="Kasalia, post: 14052, member: 499" Take pictures maybe and report to the police.[/QUOTE]
Police want nothing to do with it.
Council rangers don't want to play nicely in sand pit with me... They know who I am and that I don't go crazy but I am so angry. I just cleaned up and seethed then realised I hadn't taken photos... But I am sure they will be back to haunt me.

I empathize with you for your plight, Janine.
It must be very frustrating rather like those of us with birds, possums, bat, etc stealing our crops.
Have you thought about the thing that Mark has?
Its a bird scarer that operates by movement & is like a crop sprinkler but it shoots a long rather forceful jet of water in the direction the movement came from.
Apparently its very good at its job.
https://www.selfsufficientculture.com/threads/motion-activated-bird-scarer.874/
This is just one thread on this tool. There are others in the Vegie growing section of the forum.
Aiming the jet down towards the ground would take some trial & error but other than that it should work.
I am thinking of getting at least one for my mango orchard this year to help with the crow problem.

Was about to post the same link

Not sure if it's an option but getting a mid to large sized dog would probably solve this problem. Train it to guard your house and yards.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions - so - I have a dog who despises the cats BUT he is quarantined from the garden area cos he is literally a bull in a china shop... Ducks worked actually - I had a small flock of Muscovy for a while and loved it - they chased the cats down then ate the garden beds they found themselves in - currently I have a great crop of marshmallow weed as I have not replanted this last season - essentially the whole area is being rested. I thought I had lost only my seedlings - I actually lost almost ALL of the root stock I had as awell so am starting from scratch when I finish uni at end of year. maybe I will grow weeds ...seem to be able to do that effectively!!
Following up from the council - they will let me catch and hand in feral cats but must release the collared domestic cats REGARDLESS of the reason for capture. Now if they poop in my garden that is apparently ok - if they fight that is no problem and if they ruin my garden through fighting or crapping everywhere there is no issue ….. BUT let my dog on the cat property to poop or dig or fight then watch out - clearly the GAWLER council is behind the times and the poor ranger is lovely but helpless until the actual council itself changes rules in this large region... thanks all !

This is a really frustrating problem and as we all know too well there's never any easy solutions to pet disputes in suburbia. Our neighbour's dog is a constant barker whenever he sees us in our front yard he yapps no end and that's annoying but nothing compared to your cat issue Janine!

I would go as far to say our fox problem is bad but at least we can do something about it and it's not a neighbours fault for neglecting to put them away at night...

Our cat is indoors full time but our other cats in the past were outdoor, however, we locked them up at nightfall.

I'm surprised you don't have other cat haters around who aren't taking matters into their own hands because it would be rather easy for people to trap and quietly dispose of cats if they wanted to and if cat owners love their moggies they should know where they are at night for their own protection.

One of our previous cats got bitten by a dog and that was the end of her... I went looking for her at dusk because she hadn't come in for her feed (and get put to bed) and I found her in her favourite spot in the garden but on closer inspection I could tell she was injured. Long story short - she never made it.

I did have one of these motion detector sprayers and they do work rather well Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler it could be worth a shot? We had ours years ago to stop possums and it eventually died but we no longer needed it anyway because we moved our garden beds away from the trees and our dog is a threat to furry things so they tend to stay away from our vegetable garden at least.

Anway, I hope the situation improves for you.