Sunday, August 21, 2011

Feral Cats Attacking Dogs


We have cats on our block. I am not talking about those Cougars found in Transcona. I am talking about kitty cats. But they are not your ordinary kitty cats. These are animals that are running loose in the streets and alleys. I can't tell you how many different cats go through my yard on a daily basis, but there are a number of them. Some are missing ears, one was seen looking really beat up, with no hair left on it's tail. These are not ordinary house cats. They are not pets. They don't let you get too close to them.
And we have neighbours that care about the stray cats. They feed them, and they don't want the cats trapped. For some reason, these feral stray cats are considered to be treasured kitty cats that need to be taken care of.
But, I am not sure that is the right way of viewing the feral cats.
In the last three weeks, I have heard  of three separate neighbours recount stories of feral cats attacking their dogs. One neighbour spent over $400 at the vet stitching a gash closed in the side of her poor pet dog. Another neighbour had her dog traumatized by the attack, while she took her leashed dogs for a walk. The third dog I heard about second hand, and don't have a lot of detail on.
The way I see it, we should be taking care of the pets we own. You know the kind. The ones you can approach without loosing an eye. The ones you take inside, or keep in a fenced yard or on a leash. We should not be feeding feral, dangerous stray animals. And we should not view these feral animals as cute little pets that need to be saved.
For those who don't want to hear it, close your ears or stop reading now.
It is time we got these feral animals under control.
STOP FEEDING FERAL ANIMALS.
Next time it might be your kids that are attacked by these animals, or it just might be YOUR dog that gets its side ripped open by the feral animals you are feeding.
I am sorry to be so harsh about this, but it just ticks me off when I keep hearing about yet another dog getting attacked by a feral cat.
Or at least that's the way I see it, as I chase feral cats from my yard, in the North End of Winnipeg.

17 comments:

  1. I saw a cat near the North End area while waiting for a bus that was seemingly terrified of me.

    It was odd.

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  2. Send a feral cat or two out to the burbs. We have flower eating rabbits everywhere. No cats around to hunt them.

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  3. Do *not* send the feral cats to the 'burbs. Geez. I'd rather have the bunnies. Our neighbours let enough of their pet cats outdoors to drive people crazy.

    As much as I love animals, I do agree with you that people should not feed feral animals (especially cats). Feral cats (cats in general, really) are unpredictable and can easily turn violent. People think they're helping by feeding them when, really, they're just letting the ferals know where a good source of food is.

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  4. Recently there has been a group of large falcons perched on the telephone poles in my neighborhood. Around the same time the falcons showed up, a lot of "My little dog or cat is missing" posters started showing up and the stray cat problem in my neighborhood has been disappearing...

    Is this a symptom of the high river levels this year?

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  5. Be glad you're not seeing feral rats or racoons and tell the people with dogs to keep them leashed on walks and they'll be less far likely to get injured. I also agree in not feeding feral animals but I've rescued and domesticated several and feel they are often maligned. Although if it is a problem if leashed and supervised dogs are being injured but I'm doubtful.

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  6. my dog was attack by 2 feral cat last week - today she is in surgery draining the puss from her wounds

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    Replies
    1. oh please, I don't buy this. You are a cat hater. What kind of dog was it, a chihuahua?

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  7. A disgusting feral cat was stalking my dalmatian puppy for two blocks then came within inches of both of us, hissing with its hair standing... my puppy between my legs terrified, while i yelled and kicked at the hissing/pissed off evil looking cat. It was demented and was trying to scare, injure... or kill my cute little 5 month old puppy. Needless to say i freaked out yelling at the cat and kicking towards it, it still wouldn't leave, i guess i shouldn't have reacted the way i did but it was an unexpected weird experience. Apparently a guy who came out after the incident said its a feral cat and it regularly stalks little dogs and try's to attack them.

    NOt cool

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  8. We were walking our dog tonight around our apartment - where we always do, and a huge group of cats bursted out from under a building! Most of them scattered, but one saw our little dog Aki and actually started to lunge at him and attempted to attack him. We kept backing up, but the cat kept coming towards us. At first I was confused cause I've never seen a cat try to attack. I mean come on...really cat? It wasn't at all interested in us. It just wanted Aki. I tried to move in front of our dog, but the cat kept trying to lunge behind me. My boyfriend finally scared it under a car by jumping at it and yelling. Honestly, if he hadn't had been there, I think that cat would have tried to attack cause it didn't at all seem to care about my presence.

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  9. That's why Trap Neuter Return exists. The neighbors feeding them, if they truly care, would be trapping them and getting them spayed or neutered. Just feeding them is no good for anyone especially the ferals.

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  10. I had a feral cat chasing my shepherd and I while we were walking yesterday. Cars were stopping so that we could run in front of them to get away from it. I can't believe how fast and long this cat chased us for. It was hissing and arching its back the whole time. I am calling today to have them picked up by the dog catcher. People couldn't believe what they were seeing & neither could I.

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    1. Same happened to my pug/boston 40 lb mix. The cat would not give up and ended up scratching my dog across the nose and her side. We had to run away. She is fine but the cats are all over the neighborhood. What do I do next time???

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  11. Come on people, get over yourself. Stupid dog owners instigate their dogs to attack cats all the time, so, I am happy when a cat blinds the shit out of a dog. I have no problem with dogs who don't chase cats, but I hate hate hate dogs who hurt cats and I would kill the dog

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    Replies
    1. You're a sick fuck.

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    2. What an asshole! Maybe one of those feral cats you love so much will attack and blind you. I'd call that poetic justice.

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    3. really man today i took my little puppy on a walk and a cat attacked him he was terrified and shivering i hope u die for what u said

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  12. A feral cat just attacked my puppy. We were just doing our walk and out of nowhere this sick in the head feral cat just lunge out of nowhere and tried to scratch my puppy. My puppy got so scared and whimpered while backing away. I immediately carried my puppy away and walked away. Thank God the crazy feral cat did not follow us. It was trying to be scary with the hair raise and enlarging its body. So atrocious! I do not dislike cats if you must know, but this particular cat who attacked my dog is EVIL personified. Now I am worried if my puppy will get traumatize by this experience.

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