Pet cat mauled in sickening attack

The horrified resident contacted the ‘MAIL’ after she discovered the cat’s body torn to pieces and strewn across her front garden.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, explained that last Tuesday night (August 7), she spotted two ‘low lifes letting their dogs loose on cats in my garden’.

She said they were using red flashlights to identify the cats by the reflections in their eyes.

“Although we made them enter the garden to remove their dogs, they informed us the cat had ran on,” she said.

However, the next morning the woman woke to find the cat ‘mauled to bits in our garden’.

She added: “A young child lives in our house and would have been traumatised had he found it.”

She said she was ‘horrified that there are such sick people living around us’.

“I took to Facebook to inform the community to keep an eye out so another family does not lose its pet,” she revealed. However, she discovered a Facebook friend had spotted the same thugs in his area two hours before they were in this woman’s garden.

“His estate is a ten minute walk away and does not take two hours to travel to, this can only indicate that the hoods have covered a lot of area in the meantime,” she said.

A spokesperson for Craigavon District Council said: “From April 2012 Council has received nine complaints in relation to dogs attacking cats.

“Obviously this is an issue which Council take very seriously and would ask people if they have any concerns to contact either the Council directly itself or the office of the animal welfare office in Armagh. The contact details are on our website including those for out of office hours.

“Council has powers if anyone sets a dog on any other animal. These controlled conditions refer to the animal only. For example we can insist that the dog is muzzled, or if a male dog, neutered, or that the dog is kept under control and if these conditions are not followed we can fine that person.

“Animal Welfare have statutory enforcement powers and can take a range of actions including providing advice, issuing improvement notices, taking an animal into their possession and initiating prosecution.”

The Animal Welfare Officer for this area is Mark Brown. His contact number is 3751 5800.