Cat Wins SPCA (Los Angeles) National Hero Dog Award

The title does not contain a typo 😉 .

Los Angeles SPCA Award Heroic Cat For Protecting Boy

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

You may remember the story of the tabby cat who raced out of the house and lunged with great commitment at a dog, who was attacking Jeremy Triantafilo, a four-year-old autistic boy. This page covers the story (opens new window).

The heroic act by Tara was much discussed because her impressive deed was videoed and the video published on YouTube (it has been seen 24 million times).

dog attacks boy but saved by cat

“It’s pretty amazing to see just a cat take on a dog and selflessly put herself out there. The dog did not even know what hit him”. -Jeremy’s father, Roger.

The dog, Scrappy, a Lab-Chow mix, was later euthanised.  I guess they decided that the attack was totally unprovoked and the dog was a danger to people in the neighbourhood which had to be the correct assessment judging by what we saw. Scrappy belonged to the neighbours.

I don’t think anybody has seen anything like it before or since.  I decided that the cat had related to the boy as one of her offspring and was protecting him.  That is what it looked like to me in any case. Mother cats are fearless when defending their kittens.

Now, about a year later (the event took place in May of 2014), The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles (SPCALA) has given its annual award to Tara. Here is the interesting bit about the award: It is the SPCA’s National Hero Dog award!

Los Angeles SPCA Award Heroic Cat For Protecting Boy

“We were so impressed by Tara’s bravery and fast action that the selection committee decided that a cat this spectacular should be the National Hero Dog,” said Madeline Bernstein (SPCALA)

Wow. What an ending to an unforgettable story.

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5 thoughts on “Cat Wins SPCA (Los Angeles) National Hero Dog Award”

  1. Tara is proof that Cats rule and dogs drool.

    Although it’s sad that Scrappy’s owners were irresponsible and allowed him to run loose. I would never make light of such misfortune.

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  2. This is great. What would it be like to have SPCA designate a National Award for CATS? There have been many cats who have done and continue to do outstanding things that have to do with protecting humans. I guess what makes this unique is that it was taped.

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  3. Good to see Tara get her recognition. That video was a sight to see. I was amazed at the dog lovers who claimed that there was something else going on, that we didn’t see the entire story and that it somehow had to be the child’s fault that Scrappy attacked. The video definitely proved otherwise. Tara was not going to tolerate that dog attacking her boy.

    Scrappy was very aggressive with Animal Control when they came to pick him up. They saw he was vicious and they dealt with him accordingly.

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