Advice when a dog attacks a cat please

[Robson3022]

From reading the posts it appears they were loose ie. not in there own property? However it sounds like neither was your cat?

Hope the cat is ok? Hopefully they will share the responsibility with you and offer half the bill?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Taken from the government website...

https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview



Part 1:
Overview
It’s against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control:

in a public place
in a private place where the dog isn’t allowed to be (eg a neighbour’s house or garden without permission)
The law applies to all dogs.

Some types of dogs are banned.

Out of control

Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:

injures someone
makes someone worried that it might injure them
A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if:

it injures someone’s animal
the owner of the animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal
A farmer is allowed to kill your dog if it’s worrying their livestock.

Penalties

You can be fined up to £5,000 and/or sent to prison for up to 6 months if your dog is out of control. You may also not be allowed to own a dog in the future.

If you let your dog injure someone, you can be sent to prison for up to 2 years and/or fined.

If you deliberately use your dog to injure someone you could be charged with ‘malicious wounding’. The maximum penalty is 5 years in prison




So I'm afraid your neighbours don't have a leg to stand on, they broke the law and are liable. The police should be involved, the next time it could be another animal, child or adult.

Edit: I read this as being common law and not a tort, maybe I'm wrong tho.

 

[Robson3022]

So I'm afraid your neighbours don't have a leg to stand on, they broke the law and are liable. The police should be involved, the next time it could be another animal, child or adult.

Any dog weather it has attacked something or not "could" attack a person but the likelyhood is they won't. There's no doubt they would attack another small furry again but this does not mean they would attack a person.

No need to ring the police initially a word with them would suffice I would imagine. If they were my dogs and this happened then I would offer to pay the excess and think that most would do the same.

 

[oldfatfool]

So I'm afraid your neighbours don't have a leg to stand on, they broke the law and are liable. The police should be involved, the next time it could be another animal, child or adult.

Edit: I read this as being common law and not a tort, maybe I'm wrong tho.

Probably not a popular statement to make but can I just point out that I gather the cat was not under control, and if it escaped from 2 greyhounds with its life I am willing to bet that it gave them a fair few injuries of their own in the process. like I said earlier I have no idea and I guess you don't either, wether the cat had been tormenting the dogs or provoking them in some way either.

Sorry to DC and I hope the cat is making a speedy recovery and that his son is also ok, but it does just bug me a little that it is always the hound that is presumed to be 100% at fault. Cats are not exactly the most harmless and gentlest of creatures, in fact they are not particularly domesticated in general and are born predators and I would hazard to guess a lost cat would last a lot longer roaming wild than a lost dog.

 

[Minotier]

Sorry to hear about your cat, I honestly think having a quiet word with the owner would be best, just so they are aware and they do their utmost to prevent another incident and they maybe, just maybe have third party liability insurance.
One of my previous Springers got quite badly mauled by two greyhounds whilst we were just walking across a playing field. They appeared in a flash and were literally trying to pull my poor dog apart and he was a full size working Springer. Cost us £320 at the vet and my father in law knew the owner. All we got was a shrugged apology and he said 'they're always chasing stuff'.
Greyhounds can be quite nasty if something, dog,cat or child runs away from them, people need to be aware that any of the sighthound group are prone to this,Greyhound,Whippet,Wolfhound,Saluki,and Lurchers, etc. That is why when you see them out they are usually muzzled.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Probably not a popular statement to make but can I just point out that I gather the cat was not under control, and if it escaped from 2 greyhounds with its life I am willing to bet that it gave them a fair few injuries of their own in the process. like I said earlier I have no idea and I guess you don't either, wether the cat had been tormenting the dogs or provoking them in some way either.

Sorry to DC and I hope the cat is making a speedy recovery and that his son is also ok, but it does just bug me a little that it is always the hound that is presumed to be 100% at fault. Cats are not exactly the most harmless and gentlest of creatures, in fact they are not particularly domesticated in general and are born predators and I would hazard to guess a lost cat would last a lot longer roaming wild than a lost dog.

I can't find any law that covers cats, therefore no riposte is available, but I might be wrong.

 

[Rob3rt]

Just because something is not the letter of the law doesn't mean that you need not consider it on a personally moral level. Whilst it may not be the law that a cat has to be under control etc (no idea) if my cat did damage to someone elses property or animal I would feel morally obligated to assume responsibility.

 

[Drago]

The excesses are about £100 !

£40 on our policy, and we got 4 cats all duly insured.

 

[fossyant]

£40 on our policy, and we got 4 cats all duly insured.

Ah, our 'older' cats were £100 - will have to check what the young one costs !