Just for interest sake, here is another view on this matter. I don't think we need to argue about matters but when someone uses strong terms such as "confess", I think it's exaggerating the issue.

This whole matter is about ownership. As dog owners you have to keep your dog in your own property.

It's different with cats because the accepted view is that cats should be outdoor animals. However you can't control your cat the way you control a dog. You can train cats, I believe, but to a certain degree. I am open to other viewpoints on this.

I would say that it's more an issue that people feel threatened and worried. Rightly so, but unless your cat is an indoor cat, there are dangers out there. Traffic, disease, fights, predators as well as kindly people who also love cats or enjoy their company. It's these same people who will bother to pick up a cat who has been run over. This might be your cat it happens to.

People also feel jealous or hurt that their pet or property is being loved and fed by other people. There may be fears and concerns that their cat is being fed too much or the wrong food. The same cat is probably also eating maggot-ridden roadkill or digging through people's waste.

This article is titled- "When it's outside, your cat is someone else's stray"
When it's outside, your cat is someone else's stray | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET

I have neighbors who know my cat belongs to me, yet they keep feeding her wet food which my vet has advised me is bad for her teeth.

I keep getting her collars with her name and my info, but I suspect they keep taking them off of her.

When I ask them not to feed her, they say "We feed all the strays and she is called Charcoal now, because you don't take care of her."

Dear Frustrated: It's pretty obvious that you at least have to keep her out of your neighbor's yard. As long as she's on their property, your cat is technically trespassing.

It sounds like they're saying that as long you let your cat come into their yard, they'll let her eat food they put out for the local strays.

There was a situation in an East Bay city some years ago where a man got tired of neighbor cats coming into his yard and defecating in his garden. So he got a live trap, baited it with cat food and took all the cats he caught down to the local animal shelter and said they were strays he caught in his yard.