THEY get some strange requests at Huddersfield Pet Supplies in Queensgate Market.

Richard, the owner, said he was bit flummoxed the other day when a lady asked him if he sold elephant or tiger dung.

“Pardon?” was his first reaction. “Why would you want elephant or tiger dung?”

“I’ve been told it keeps cats out of your garden,” said the lady.

Which makes sense, in a way, if you are a couple of prowling cats and suddenly see a rather large deposit left by a mammal of gigantic proportions.

“By heck, Felix. They've got a flaming big dog. “Time to try Mrs Smith’s in the next street.”

But it also poses the question of which is preferable: the occasional wandering moggie or a pile of doo-da as big as a dustbin lid?

The lady customer, however, pursued her quest.

“Do you know where I could get some?” she said.

“How about Knowsley Safari Park?” said Richard.

“I know it sounds odd,” said the lady, with a smile. “Perhaps someone has been pulling my leg.”

But hang on before we all have a good laugh at the proud gardener. A few years ago, zoos in the UK found there WAS a demand by home-owners who wanted tiger poo to spread on their garden to keep cats and foxes away, and in their gutters to stop birds nesting.

Why am I not surprised it didn’t catch on?

Yet one chap from Hartlepool only recently emailed a website for advice on where to get tiger dung for that same purpose of keeping cats out of his garden.

The response he got was less than sympathetic.

Dan Stalker from Australia replied: “I used lion dung in my garden and have not been troubled by zebra, giraffe or even Harte’s gazelle, but it did nothing to keep the cats away.

“I suspect tiger dung would be similar. I would try dog dung in your garden, and it would be most effective when still inside the dog.”

Useful advice.

Elephant dung, on the other hand – or preferably shovel – can be very useful.

Turner prize winning artist Chris Ofilli has used it in his works of art but then, critics of some of the Turner prize exhibitors, say that dung is entirely appropriate at this event.

The Hindustani Times says elephant dung is a very effective mosquito repellent, but would you want to smear the stuff all over your face and arms?

Not a very sophisticated aftershave for sitting round the pool bar in the five star Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai of an evening, even though it would ensure you got your own table.

And then I read on and discovered that you don’t wear it, you burn it and it’s the smoke that kills the mozzies. Which is a relief.

This very basic animal output is also used in Thailand and Sri Lanka to make paper. On average, an elephant eats 200 to 250 kilogrammes of food a day, they say, which provides 50 kilogrammes of dung, from which is produced 115 sheets of paper.

Mind you, I think I’ll still go to Staples for my stationery needs.

Dung has also had its fans in history. Well, one.

Blackadder’s servant Baldrick was, at one time, a dung gatherer and retained his love of the stuff throughout the life of the comedy series.

As Blackadder once said: “Give the likes of Baldrick the vote and we’ll be back to cavorting druids, death by stoning and dung for dinner.”

Tiger dung, however, is said to have beneficial uses, according to followers of ancient Chinese medicine.

They say it is good for the treatment of boils and haemorrhoids, and can cure alcoholism.

“You won’t get another drink until you’ve eaten this plate of dung.”

Yes, that would make me teetotal, too. But probably not Baldrick.