SHOULD there be regulations to control cats when they’re outdoors, just as there are for dogs?

One man thinks so. Dr Peter Marra, of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Centre in the US, says the roaming of cats has to stop because they are responsible for killing 2.4 billion birds every year, 275 million in the UK alone.

In addition, a paper just published in the National Academy of Sciences said that cats are responsible for the extinction of 63 species.

Dr Marra has nothing against cats, which he describes as “wonderful creatures” that exhibit “spectacular behaviours”.

But he suggests they should be kept on leashes outside or only have access to ‘catios’ - special caged-off outdoor areas, which would stop them having access to wildlife and also picking up and spreading diseases.

Dr Marra has recently published a book called Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer that said: “The impact on human health have become more and more clear over the last 20 years”, commenting on the diseases that cats can spread to humans including toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, and rabies in some countries.

I thoroughly agree with him. There are 8.1million cats in this country, most of which appear to have used my small garden (not even big enough to swing a cat in) as a toilet before we got a dog, and as far as I know not a single cat in this country has ever been taught how not to get killed or horribly injured on the roads.

In order to protect the public from aggressive dogs and diseases spread by their mess, the behaviour of the owners of dogs is strictly controlled by many laws and bylaws that can be enforced by the police and councils, with recent calls for dog owners to be subjected to even more stringent controls.

We dog owners must clear up our pets’ mess in public places, microchip them, keep them on leads in public, and socialise them so they do not present a danger to people or other dogs - all of it fair enough.

After all, dogs can kill and indeed have killed people - but cats can also maim with their claws and their teeth, particularly children attracted to a seemingly sweet little cat sitting on a wall.

But there are no laws about cats and their owners, which I find strange.

Cats, beautiful and wonderful creatures that they are, are a public nuisance in many ways, thanks to a lack of control by their owners. I get angry every time I hear a cat owner say smugly: “I love the fact that cats don’t mess in their own territory.”

Yes, they are thoughtfully messing in someone else’s garden instead, without the permission of the garden’s owner. Yet if we dog owners let our dogs run freely around their gardens without their permission, they’d call the police.

I frequently find cat mess outside our front door but the owners are untraceable and unaccountable. It’s just not acceptable.

And I simply don’t understand the mentality of cat owners who boot their cats outside and expect them to negotiate roads and vehicles, hope they will survive encounters with dogs that want to kill them and escape the clutches of thugs who want to torture and kill them. To me, that’s just plain cruel.

In today’s world, it’s not good enough to say that roaming is in cats’ nature. It may be, but not in our modern human world, which they are simply not equipped to deal with.

Testament to that is the sheer number of ‘missing cat’ posters everywhere. You could argue that roaming is also in dogs’ natures but we don’t allow them to run free without consequences.

So yes, let’s make laws to protect cats from our dangerous world and also to protect us and our wildlife from them.

SPEAKING of dogs (yes, yes, I admit I am a dog lover rather than a cat lover), our pretty black-and white cocker spaniel, notorious for being slightly crazy and very food-obsessed, was the centre of attention a few days ago when a family we had recently met came round for the afternoon. None of us knew each other very well and it was the first time all our children had met.

Our dog, with her smiley face and glass-half-full personality, proved to be an ideal ice-breaker.

She greeted the parents and 12-year-old daughter politely and enthusiastically, with her tail on turbo charge to great amusement and her tongue lolling out of her mouth with laughter.

She rolled over and presented her tummy for squeezing and stroking, and she took a great liking to the 12-year-old, much to her delight.

“She’s a special dog,” we were told, and we couldn’t help agreeing as we all gazed lovingly at her. Our dog, of course, lapped up all the attention and she helped us to make some lovely new friends.

I know I’m devoted to dogs and a tad cooler towards cats, but I can’t see a cat being such a great party animal.