I Helped Put a Dog on Death Row. It Was Necessary but Makes Me Really Sad. (Long. Sorry.)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I haven’t posted for quite a while but need to get this out. Sensitive people probably shouldn’t read this.

Yesterday, while out on a walk, I heard a dog barking excitedly and persistently. I looked across the street and a few houses down, and saw two dogs who looked as if they had some other creature cornered. I thought I’d better see what was going on, but I don’t move quickly anymore and the street was kind of busy so it took me a minute to get there. When I did, I saw they had caught a cat and it was obvious they’d already killed it.

The dog doing the barking looked to have some husky in it. He was dancing around and trying to get at the cat but didn’t want to challenge the other dog, a pit bull mix. The pit had his jaws on the cat’s neck and chest as it lay on the ground. The husky mix quieted down as I arrived and both dogs, thankfully, allowed me to approach without any aggression toward me.

The pit still hung onto the cat so I used the tip of my cane to very gently nudge him as I talked softly. I know it was risky and that he could have turned vicious but I used to be a groomer and feel I can read dogs pretty well. If he or the husky mix had shown any signs of aggression, I would have moved a safe distance away and called 911. As it was, the pit let the cat go after a few moments and moved a few feet away with his friend. The thing that breaks my heart is that they both actually seemed like happy, easy-going dogs. I can easily envision that if the situation was different, I would be giving them scritches behind the ears and encouraging them to play. But they (or at least the pit) had just killed a cat!

The pit still wanted at the cat but understood I was more alpha than he and that I wouldn’t let him. Both of them hung around for a few moments then wandered into the next yard and then down the street. I got out my phone and took a few pictures before they left and of their victim, too. This occurred right outside someone’s house but since no one had come out after hearing the husky mix barking his head off, I assumed they were out.

I phoned information and got the number for Animal Control but the operator gave me the number for the county instead of the city. The county person gave me the correct number but I couldn’t get it to work. After trying for a minute or two, the door to the house opened and a couple of young guys came out, on their way to somewhere. I explained what happened and one of them said the cat used to belong to the neighbor but got kicked out of the house due to spraying issues. The people in the house where the cat was killed had been feeding it since they moved in last summer.

One of them got hold of Animal Control and the other guy made copies of my photos. The other resident came out and told me that she had held that cat for a half hour not long before. She hugged me and then, since it looked as if they had things under control, I went on my way back home, just a few blocks away.

I live with my boyfriend now. I told him what had happened and together we called Animal Control so I could tell them what I had witnessed. Fast forward a few hours. The officer who was assigned to the case called to tell us that she had found both dogs. Unfortunately, it turned out the pit had quite a day. He’d killed another cat, severely injured yet another, then went home and killed the one he lived with. I don’t know if he had a prior history of doing this or if it was something he’d just discovered.

I haven’t been the same since hearing that. All the pain and terror those cats went through and the sorrow of the people who loved them. And yet, I keep thinking about the way the pit looked at me after he finally let go of that cat. Not like a dog on a killing rampage at all. It was as if cats were just like playing with a ball or some other toy to him. Looking at me like, “What fun thing can we do now? Hey, maybe you wanna play?” It’s just not what I imagined a killer dog to be.

Now he’ll be euthanized. As he should be, I know. It’s sad to know the pit’s owner has deal with losing two pets in one day like that. (Yes, I know they should have been more responsible and not allowed their dog to roam like that. And perhaps should had been aware of what he could do to cats.) His husky mix friend, who belongs to someone else, is banned from ever living in our county again.

It’s helped writing this out. I thank you for listening. I know some of you are probably not happy with me for being so soft-hearted over the pit bull mix. I know it’s irrational but that’s just how it hit me. I’ll get over it and you will, too. Life goes on and all that.

Sure wish I could know who the other people are who lost their cats, plus the badly injured one. It would be nice to send them cards.

2

There’s no reason to be ashamed to have sympathy for an animal that has to be euthanized. Regardless of the breed. Anyone who gives you shit over it can piss right off. I’m also sad for the kitties, the dogs, and the owners of all of the above…and for you for having been witness to that. :frowning:

3

A large portion though not all bad dog stories involve dogs roaming loose. It could have been a one-off that could happen to any dog owner…but probably not.

Otherwise the idea of considering or treating various individual dogs differently according to appearance category has no scientific foundation. There’s no reason for you to be more or less sympathetic to the dog which looked like a ‘pit bull’ for that reason (relative to a given action, you’re free to prefer or not that kind of dog ascetically). And the authorities’ different responses to the two dogs might be questioned if it had anything to do with ‘pit bull’, though no evidence from your story it did.

Also I believe there’s room to question why owners of dogs running loose are considered more at fault than owners of cats running loose if said dogs kill said cats, which is what a lot of dogs want to do though a smaller subset have the determination and skills to accomplish it, even if let loose. But if the local laws say you have to contain dogs and not cats, you have to live within the law or face the consequences.

I’d have a big problem though with a dog put to death because it killed ‘somebody’s’ cat they don’t keep in their house but rather allow to roam freely and it came into the dog’s yard. Nor are cats typically euthanized for killing all the small animals they like to kill, which in some areas is a serious threat to ecological balance, seldom the case with dogs.

Anyway, there’s no blame to people reporting loose dogs getting into trouble, or even just loose dogs.

4

** Corry El **

Domestic cats running loose are nothing like a direct threat to life as a large dog or any breed.

Once a dog has learnt how to kill, the risk has to be that it will take on children, maybe it will not, but do you want to be the one to make the decision in the face of obvious risk, and do you want to be the one to volunteer to tell the parents?

5

What? There’s no connection between killing a small animal and a human. Entire breeds of dogs were created to hunt rats, badgers, birds, and so on without any consideration they’d learn to kill humans. No one thinks a duck-killing Lab or a squirrel-killing Australian Shepherd is going to begin killing children. This is prejudice, pure and simple.

Also, while we don’t know what the “pit mix” in the story was mixed with, the American Pit Bull Terrier is a medium-sized dog. NOT a large dog, despite the frequency with which SDMB posters call them “large.”

While I have a cat (indoor-only) and would defend a stray cat from a dog, I note that many jurisdictions routinely round up and kill unclaimed outdoor cats as a matter of policy, and as far as I know, do not subsequently euthanize the animal control officers who did so out of fear they will turn against children.

6

As Sailboat said, there is no valid basis for such an assumption. A big dog, or especially strong dog even if not so big, is more of a potential threat to people than a cat because it’s bigger and stronger than a cat. That’s a valid practical reason for laws requiring containment of dogs*. But the fact that the dog has managed to act on its prey instinct toward a smaller animal is irrelevant to what threat it poses to people. ‘Once it has the taste of blood’, is wives tale territory as it relates to dogs which have killed other animals. A dog which has attacked people is reasonably deemed a special threat to people because it has attacked people. Dogs know the difference between animals and people as one of their most basic adaptations to the complete domesticity they’ve been subjected to for eons longer than cats have.

*whereas the demonstrated ability of cats to make certain wild bird species extinct is a practical reason to reconsider the convention of ‘outdoor cats’. It doesn’t mean people should let their dogs loose. But the idea of some pseudo-morality by which a dog which kills a cat is a ‘killer dog’ which must be eliminated but a cat which kills birds isn’t, is arbitrary, especially if the human to which the cat ‘belongs’ keeps it as an only semi-domesticated animal. If the cat is special, keep it in the house. It’s perfectly reasonable to destroy dogs which break into other people’s houses to kill cats (which has happened).

7

Well its all a matter of risk isn’t it, lots of dogs are used to hunt and they don’t attack humans, however its a matter of control.

If you have a dog that does kill due to its traits and learned behaviour, you do not necessarily need to euthanize it, but it seems to be a good idea to maintain control.

Unfortunately folk only concern themselves with personal threats - and domestic cats don’t represent all that much of a threat - which is deceptive because they can be laden with disease they can pass on through scratches and bite.

We would never dream of allowing a larger member of the cat family out, even when supervised.

As for keeping domestic cats indoors, yup, I can go along with that, some cats are hunters and others are not, I have seen folk take their cats out on leashes, probably more to protect the cat than anything else.

The problem for largish dogs is that those allowed to roam free are likely to have bad owners who do not care to put the effort into training them. Once such an animal has demonstrated behaviour that could be a matter of concern then its pretty unlikely that such an owner is going to take the steps to redirect its behaviour.

A dog that kills a colleague pet cat inside a house is displaying a different sort of behaviour, it may well be trying to move up the pack hierarchy, such a dog has to be deemed a significant risk - what happens to a child that it deems to be next one up in the pack? whereas a dog that is reacting to its hunting instincts is probably less dangerous.

All the same though, it comes down to having a crystal ball, what will it do in the future, nothing? maybe and maybe not, but get it wrong and your belief in the trustworthiness of the dog will not be much of a defence when you are confronted with the results.

8

You make several reasonable points, but the one where it’s assumed a dog acting on its natural prey drive toward other animals per se makes it higher risk to humans remains groundless. Waving the bloody shirt about ‘the children’ doesn’t change that.

It’s not good to let dogs run loose on other people’s or public property especially where it’s illegal. And doing so tends to correlate with other bad dog owner behaviors which can make dogs dangerous to people. By the same token having dogs and cats or even multiple dogs in a house is a risk factor for trouble, even as numerous as the people are who do so without a problem. People can get hurt directly in the middle of fights between dogs or dogs and other animals, that’s true.

But a dog’s experience in hunting, even cats, even other dogs, strictly by itself as a factor, is not a valid criterion for assessing the risk of that dog to people, especially as compared to a dog which has the same urges but hasn’t been allowed the opportunity to act on them.

And the implication I took from the OP of some moral opprobrium toward ‘killer’ dogs which kill cats that one wouldn’t aim at cats which kill birds is nonsensical IMO. But such feelings seem to intrude into such discussions sometimes, even if I misread it as applying to OP in particular.

9

My dog, may she rest in peace, was a whippet. She killed rabbits. That’s what her breed was developed to do. And a couple of times she brought us birds. The idea that she’d ever decide that it was okay to attack children or other humans is simply ludicrous – her breed wasn’t bred for that.

10

Dogs are hierarchical animals and those disposed to killing other animals are a risk to people.

The dog in question needed to be put down and anyone suggesting otherwise is gambling people’s lives as well as other animals.

11

I believe the fact that the dog killed several animals that day, not just one, may have moved it into the euthanasia column. There may be other factors that the OP may not be aware of, such as prior offenses, or the owner themselves may have decided to euthanize now rather than have the animal on enforced lockdown, with restrictions. The law varies city or county to county in terms of what is mandated.

Thank you for trying to help.

12

Yep.

I call my Weiner Pack *“The Killer Elite”. *They are pretty hard on ground squirrels, field mice, rabbits (if they could catch one). That’s what they do. I encourage them. I only scold them when they go after lizards. And they learn. They know not to mess with chicks or lambs.

Zero danger to people.

13

I know you feel bad, but this dog isn’t fit to be a pet. Do you know who the dog belongs to? Cuz those owners aren’t fit to have pets.

I feel bad for the kittehs. Hug to you too.

14

Fifteen-thousand-plus years of shared history clearly indicates otherwise, and further indicates that the majority (probably the vast majority) of the human race is utterly unconcerned with the fear that dogs who kill animals will turn against humans.