Miaow row as Rio the lovelorn cat's mating calls lead to owners 'being hounded out of village by angry neighbours'

By JILL REILLY

Cat fight: John Beale, Rio's owner has revealed he and his wife are now selling their home claiming they are being hounded out of the village

With his name being short for Lothario, Rio the Burmese cat was always likely to have some pedigree when it came to wooing the ladies.
But his mews of desire as he seeks a mate are so loud that they have caused a feud in the idyllic village where he lives.
Indeed, feelings on the matter have become so bitter that his owners John and Theresa Beale are selling their house in Manaton, Devon, and moving elsewhere in the Dartmoor area, claiming they can no longer trust their neighbours.
While they wait to sell the three-bed semi, valued at £200,000, Rio will be temporarily rehomed with a friend of the Beales in Yorkshire.

Raucous Rio: Mr Beale admits the £900 champion cat is noisy, and said if Rio continued making such a din Mr Beale plans to have him rehomed or neutered

Mr Beale, a handyman who has bred Burmese cats for 24 years, said that despite enjoying life in the village for the past ten years, including running its gardening club, people had 'emerged from the shadows' to make him feel unwelcome.
He said: 'It is a sad end to our life in Manaton. We accept Rio is an annoyance to our neighbours. But we have tried to reduce the noise.
'We have had these complaints and just feel harassed by them.'

Planning to move: John Beale's home in the village of Manaton, Devon. Mr Beale made a complaint to Teignbridge Council over comments made about his cat in the parish magazine

The Beales bought Rio for £400 as a kitten, and planned to use him as a stud cat. He won best in show for adult Burmese at the West of England Show last June but trouble soon began. Mr Beale said: 'Last August he was 11 months old and reached sexual maturity. He started calling for girls. Most cats do this.'
But the Beales then found out that a neighbour, parish councillor Kate Pascoe, had complained to Teignbridge district council about Rio.
Environmental health officers found there were short periods when the wailing in Rio's heated quarters in the Beales' garden was above acceptable levels – but that it did not constitute a statutory nuisance.
Then Mrs Pascoe's chairman on the parish council, Julian Tope, wrote an article in the parish magazine about 'a series of complaints I have received recently about noise and other problems with animals which are spoiling people's enjoyment of our peaceful village'.

source: dailymail