Children witness pet cat torn apart by dogs

In the daylight attack one dog grabbed the head of 16-year-old Oliver while the other gnashed her tail end.

The cat owner, who doesn’t want to be named, says she is devastated by the incident which happened on her Gracefield Lodge doorstep.

She said her cat had been napping on her window sill when the dogs arrived last Wednesday afternoon. Neighbours, including young children, witnessed the attack.

The woman arrived home from shopping and saw the dogs with Oliver between their teeth.

She tried to intervene to save Oliver but claimed the husky dogs bared their teeth in an aggressive manner.

A neighbour had called the police and officers quickly arrived at the scene.

“Before mauling our cat to pieces and eating it in full view of not only its horrified owners, neighbours and frightened kids, these dogs ran to attack one of the neighbours who fled to her house to call the police,” said the cat owner.

The woman revealed that once the police arrived, officers had to beat the dogs away from the cat with batons.

“Meanwhile other children were trapped from getting to their homes because the dogs were in the middle preventing them from getting to safety,” she continued.

Officers then chased the dogs behind another neighbour’s house, but the dogs escaped.

Later a dog warden arrived and one of the dogs was discovered close to a hen house nearby. This animal was impounded.

Following the incident the cat owner put an advert in the nearby shop saying a husky type dog had been found and the owner contacted her.

He was informed his dog was in the pound.

The woman has now demanded that the dogs be put down

However, she added that she was unsure that would be the outcome.

She also revealed the same dogs had attempted to attack Oliver two weeks previously.

After the dogs fouled in her garden, the cat owner claimed that she went outside to choo it away. “Again it growled and showed its teeth in an aggressive and attacking stance before wandering off around the estate to find something or someone to eat.

The pet owner, who said her family had been left “devastated” by the death of Oliver, added that she feared a human could be injured by the dogs in question. “Any infant child is at risk. Even the next day there wasn’t one child out playing at their doors which is unusual for this close knit area.”

She highly commended the bravery of the police praising their quick thinking, rapid response and sincerity throughout.

A spokesperson for Craigavon Council said the dog warden’s investigation is ongoing and it was therefore not possible to go into details.

She reminded pet owners that it is an offence for any dog to attack and injure any other animal owned by another person and new powers in the legislation allow the Council to impose control conditions in respect of dog attacks.

The dog keeper would have to comply with certain requirements such as keeping the dog securely confined and under control in a public place.