AS a dog owner I am constantly reminded by the anti dog lobby about cleaning up in public places after my pet. How can I disagree?

However, I am getting a bit tired of being lectured by self-righteous cat owners on this subject, especially when I have just plunged my hands into yet another load of cat faeces when weeding my garden pots.

Not only is this unhygienic, cats' faeces are also a source of toxoplasma and most other human infections.

Pregnant women, especially, are advised to avoid this possible source of infection and take great care not to touch it and to avoid emptying cat litter trays.

Whenever I challenge cat owners about their pets desire to distribute their waste products anywhere but in their own garden you get the standard answer: "What can we do, cats are a free spirit"?

I wonder how they would react if I walked my free spirit of a dog into their garden and left them a present of a pile of faeces.

How long would it be before the dog warden was called and I was prosecuted?

Why also would a dog that was wandering the streets be picked up by the dog warden when cats are ignored?

Why is it allowed for many cat owners simply to abdicate responsibility for their pets behaviour by simply turning them out to roam through neighbours gardens, distributing their precious little parcels of filth at will as they go? I feel it is about time cat owners were made to control and clean up after their pets in the same way as dog owners.

Keith Laird

Pocket Nook Road

Chew Moor