If you ever walk around residential neighborhoods in Japan, you’ll see something like this outside many homes.

Multiple bottles of water lined up outside the house…

The reason?

The bottles are there so that dogs and cats won’t peepee on the house.

Many Japanese believe that dogs and cats are scared of the bottles and will avoid the peepee on the house.

Some say it’s the light reflecting off the water. Others say that the bottles just block the intended peepee spot.

The practice supposedly came from Europe where home owners placed bottles of water outside the house so that if the dog or cat peepee’d, the owner could use the water to clean the mess.

It was a courtesy gesture indicating the home owner liked pets.

Somewhere however, that tradition was misinterpreted when introduced to Japan and old Japanese ladies thought that the bottled water scared away the animals.

Unfortunately, many Japanese TV’s have proved this theory wrong and the bottled water has no effect on peepee.

They showed that in extreme cases, the water bottles acted like magnifying glasses and could actually cause fires!

But the best proof?

Ask Tintin.

He peepee’s on the water bottles all the time…

That’s one victory for the dogs…and cats.