Clearly you do care, or you wouldn’t be trying to start internet fights about it.
2 Likes
.[quote=“Thunderhammer, post:19, topic:31347”]
That is crazy talk, I hope you are getting the help you clearly need.
[/quote]
What?
3 Likes
Awesome kat!
It seems to me that the appropriate actions that should be taken with respect to this particular dog are obvious and do not involve training or fences.
8 Likes
A dog that would maliciously and without provocation brutally attack a child like this has no place living with people. It should be put down as a danger to children. Sad but that attack was seriously scary and could have really hurt the boy if the cat hadn’t been johnny-on-the-spot.
That cat, on the other hand, is incredible. There is an interview with the cat and the little boy on the youtube page with the video where you can see how much she loves him.
14 Likes
I most certainly did RTFM. They added that line–it wasn’t there when I cut/pasted.
I loved that part too. After the cat drives off the dog it runs back to check on the kid. Cat must really love that kid!
4 Likes
Unfortunately I have to agree here. A vicious unprovoked attack like this is not something that is “trainable”, and stop gap measures like fences etc… only reduce the chance, not eliminate, the possibility of another attack happening. Particularly in cases like this, the neighbor kid’s right to life and safety on his property far trumps the dog’s right to exist.
I have had to euthanize a few pets, oftentimes owned by conscientious and caring people, who developed out of control aggression, and attacked children (I’m a practicing veterinarian). If you live alone on a mountaintop with no neighbors, then by all means have a dog like this and keep him on your property. If you live anywhere near other humans, particularly children, then just trying to keep the dog indoors/away from the general populace only works as long as a situation like this doesn’t happen.
And yeah, the 10 day waiting period is so that they don’t have to lop off it’s head and submit the brain for rabies testing. Legally, if you euthanize an animal that has bitten someone within the last 10 days you’re required in most areas to submit intact brain tissue (not removed from skull) to the county health offices for rabies testing.
7 Likes
Pssshhh. Clearly that was a dog in a cat suit.
1 Like
Our cats exhibit this kind of behavior. Unfortunately the recipient is our sweet, completely harmless, senile aged dog who wants nothing more than to pace the house aimlessly.
1 Like
Thanks for the link!
Is it just me, or is it weird that the dog seemed to zero in on the kid as a victim? I know dogs can get pretty vicious to defend their territory or their “pack”, but sure didn’t look defensive to me.
As a cat lover, it sure is nice to see a cat get on the news for heroics. They can be as protective as any dog.
1 Like
I happen to agree, actually. But it’s kind of ridiculous to accuse Daneyul of being literally, clinically insane for so much as suggesting that rehabilitation is possible.
1 Like
Great video! ABC news has picked it up and is showing everything but the gory pics of the damage.
Every dog is a potential killer. In the absence of pack hierarchy they will act in unpredictable ways. When more than one stray dog is present they will spontaneously form a pack where the most brutal and dangerous dog may well become dominant and set behavior for all pack members. Farmers know all about it; a single family pet dog (always so gentle! never attacks other animals!) can kill a hundred sheep in a single night. This happens.
Today US government health agencies estimate there are between 70 and 78 million pet dogs in the USA, and even more cats. Each year, approximately 4.5 million people in the U.S. are bitten by dogs with over 300,000 requiring emergency room visits and around a third of those requiring hospital stays. Many people are left with lasting physical and psychological scars. Dog owners who understand the needs of a vigorous pack animal and can safely keep a large healthy dog seem to be rare in the US, and since most people are disarmed these days a dog can do a lot of damage before some cat manages to kill it or drive it off.
3 Likes
Someone else who’s read that book!
1 Like
To be fair, cat may be protecting its toy-handler.
Oops, sorry- I didn’t mean to make it sound so harsh. I also didn’t notice that the story had been updated.
3 Likes
To me that didn’t look like out-and-out aggression (by which I mean something driven by fear / anger / hierarchy / etc.) but like hunting behaviour. It looked like that dog saw the kid and thought “lunch”. Which raises of course the question of how poorly socialised and isolated a dog has to be to not recognise that a human child is not prey? And how do we stop such irresponsible people as its owners clearly are from doing that with another dog?
6 Likes
I agree that the dog should probably be put down.
On a semantic side-note - can an animal be malicious? Or is malice a human-only characteristic?
Lunch- like ‘a dingo stole my baby’?
can an animal be malicious?
have you met cats?
3 Likes
