sw perhaps but I still think its more responsible as a pet owner to pickup your own cat's waste than it is to have your neighbour's child to dig it out of their own sandbox where your cat "helpfully" buried it. That being said I still hope whoever hurt the cat rots.

While I find that kicking/stepping a cat is an ugly act - I'm still confused as to why is it assumed that it is "ok" just to let a cat take off and have a so called bathroom break (or more specifically deposit feces and or urine) on someone else's property? Do cats have an inalienable right to relieve themselves wherever they want without their owners present to clean up the mess?