Cheers :D.
FWIW the term sidewalk is understood but not used. Pavement can be a footpath but it is more specifically used to describe the surface material - concrete or asphalt.
Damn you tower of Babel!!
Thank you for repeating yourself. This is just what I meant, everyone in the neighborhood knew that my cat hated dogs and would attack them if they stepped foot in his yard. From what I know about Tara, this was a one time thing and I think it happened because her kitten was in danger.
Most cats choose to retreat, they don’t attack, stop to access the situation and then attack again without reason.
This makes sense although I wouldn’t go so far as to say “nothing to do with”. I suspect if the dog had attacked a ball or something the cat wouldn’t have reacted so strongly, but attacking another small living thing that is part of the cat’s household was maybe very threatening to the cat even if it didn’t care for the child as such.
Thank you for clarifying that. I think you’re absolutely right, and wish I’d said it that way to begin with.
I had an indoor/outdoor cat. I was letting him one day through the garage and there was dog (beagle I think) investigating the garbage can.
The cat pounced on the dog from the steps, the dog hightailed out while the cat was riding the beagle like Willie Shoemaker rides a horse. (albeit without a saddle).
I think Herby rode the beagle for about 40 yds before he finally got bucked off.
I never saw that dog again and I don’t think the dog ever knew what hit him.
I wish I had it on video.
That sounds awesome, notfrommensa. My cat was out in the front yard one day (back in the days when I wasn’t as careful with her being fenced as I am now) when she saw a husky walking by. I noticed her noticing the dog, and she was very casually going to march over and kill the dog - I grabbed her up and took her into the house before the carnage started. The dog was on her territory (in her mind, her territory included the sidewalk in front of the house), and that just wasn’t allowed.
I wish you had it on video, too. 
How is this any different from what cats normally get?
Touché! 
While all I can do is humbly disagree with most of your post, I had to come back and answer here. Sorry it’s been a few days, I had a hard drive crash.
Dogs who attack children (or anyone) should be evaluated by professionals and put down depending on the circumstances. Sometimes the child will be a psycho who got what was coming to them, like a guy I know who as a teen stabbed a dog in the balls with an ink pen and in return had his left ear ripped off. Sometimes the dog will be a psycho, that happens too. A case-by-case basis is ideal.
I do not have a cite, I was simply assuming that the dog was not trained. Yes, training is a process, and it’s possible that they had already consulted a professional. I have no way of knowing.
I have five dogs. I’ve had a few escape artists, and while I admit it took some learning, containing them is possible. Unless someone comes up to my house and lets the dogs out, my dogs will never run loose all over the neighborhood unsupervised. Yes, guaranteed. And yes, on those occasions that my own dogs escaped, it was my fault and no one was responsible except me. Even the dog who jumped out a window several years ago, even the one who can turn doorknobs and unhook leashes with his paws. My fault.
On the subject of Super Cat going out in public, I don’t think that’s wise. The cat won’t know what’s happening and it will be a stressful and scary experience for her. Maybe a better idea would be to take up donations to cover the cat’s lifetime of vet care, toys and treats? Oh well, it’s not up to me.
Ummm…did you watch the video? The kid was not doing anything to provoke the dog. No stabbing in the balls, no running around and screaming like a prey animal, he was just standing there when the dog attacked.
I’m all about rescue and rehab, but if that had been my dog, he would have gone to the vet for a trip to the bridge and then testing for rabies. That was a sneaky and premeditated attack on an innocent child.
There is NO reason to not cull that dog from the gene pool.
Critters escape at times. We have a stupid declawed and half his mouth shot off cat who escapes whenever he can. We also have a dog who will shoulder her way past us to go play fetch the cat. If I ever thought that said dog or cat would attack a child like that…said pet would be dead.
I’m surprised nobody has put forth the possibility that this heroic cat had actually been terrorizing the dog in his own yard for months and he finally snapped when he got out and attacked the boy/cat in one blurry adrenaline fueled melee.
From my own experience once a cat has learned that it can get away with attacking a given dog it usually does it repeatedly. From this video, and the stories of many in this thread, along with seeing what my own cat does to my mellow, older, friendly dog who patiently tolerates unspeakable abuse from him, there are quite a few cats who have no fear of dogs.
The dog was 8 months old. You can hardly argue that he is just a vicious dog by nature based on this one incident without knowing much more detail than is provided in news coverage. Every puppy needs to be properly socialized, and most especially with children and other animals. It isn’t a sign of some genetic flaw or bad temperament if an unsocialized 8 month old puppy bites a kid on a bike. If he smelled like a giant cat who had been sneak-attacking him regularly in the past it might even be understandable. Anyone who works with dogs, any breed, of any temperament, will tell you that a small, almost eye-level child is at much greater risk of triggering a sudden and uncharacteristic attack and small kids around any dog should always be supervised. (even if by a cat, apparently)
And incidentally, while many in this thread including yourself are echoing this old mantra that any dog who bites needs to be put down instantly, that has nothing to do with why the dog will be put down. It is a matter of liability for the town, plain and simple, and has nothing to do with the dog’s prospects to be trained and socialized by a competent owner. Knowing that he has bitten, even if not any indicator that he would go on to bite again in other circumstances, they could find themselves in court as the targets of a money grab lawsuit in the event anything did ever happen.
Yanno…you are right. I’m more into cats than dogs, but if one of my cats had attacked an innocent child like that…cat would have gone to the vet for rabies testing.
Critters who attack humans without reason need to be put down. There are many MANY nice critters sitting on death row right now. They don’t need therapy, they don’t need a dog whisperer. They just need a home because they have committed the sin of being homeless.
But back to dogs that attack humans for no reason. Why would anyone want to keep them, trainers or not? Just think about the legal stuff, your known biter escapes and mangles another kid. What’s that dog going to cost now?
There are so many nice and gentle dogs on death row, get rid of the bad one and save a good one.
And my post raises one possible reason.
Anyway I’m not sure it is an either/or question. If a dog makes the news and gets an outpouring of offers for adoption it wouldn’t cause another dog to not be adopted. Its a pure question of civil liability, not supply of available resources for rescued dogs.
I can’t agree with this more strongly.
Not a chance. That’s far too sober and reasonable, given the current " Lassie The Cat! " gushfest.
Tara did very well at her baseball outing. They tried having her bat at a ball on fish line. Ended up with her person throwing the ball for her.
Shows how much I know.
:rolleyes:
Apparently the dog has been put down. Doesn’t sound like this was one isolated incident either—he was aggressive at the animal shelter.
You bet I’d be aggressive on Death Row.
One of the comments on that link claims there have been 22 people killed by dog attacks so far this year, and the commenter enumerated them. I wouldn’t count the last one, where a guy suffered a heart attack after breaking up a fight between seven dogs. Still, 21? I never thought there were that many.