NEWS AND COMMENT: The first thing I want to address is the word “sicced”. I don’t even know how to pronounce it. I’ve never seen it before which is unusual for me but it means ‘to set upon or attack’. Normally you would say that these two guys set their dogs on a black cat. There is a video on Twitter which I’m not going to embed on this website because advertisers won’t allow it. It’s that bad. Even though the nasty bits have been blurred out. However, if you want to see it, please click on the link below the screenshot which takes you to Twitter and the video.
UPDATE: Please continue to read the article but I want to intervene here with some good news. It is reported that two juveniles, one as young as 12 and the other 17 have been identified as the perpetrators. I’m told that last Friday, the 17-year-old went to the Pennsylvania SPCA with one of his parents and the 12-year-old also surrendered last Saturday. The dogs have been seized. As I understand it, they have been charged with felonies: animal fighting, aggravated animal cruelty and a conspiracy charge (not sure exactly what this is). There is an issue with their age. As I also understand it, they will be charged as juveniles which will result in significantly lesser punishments. Buddy, the cat, is still in a critical condition but still alive. They are cautiously optimistic.
Click for the video of two young American guys of colour who sicced their Pitbull-type dogs on a black cat – Please remember that Twitter tweets sometimes disappear. I can’t control that. You have a description in lieu of the video if that has happened.
I watched the first part of it to see what happened. It’s important that we know exactly what happened when a couple of young men set their dogs on an innocent cat minding his own business in a front porch in America. It may be important in a potential criminal trial for animal cruelty.
RELATED: Public safety is enhanced when dogs are targeted by behaviour not appearance.
The black cat was sitting in the sun on his haunches watching the world go by. Two American guys of colour walk by on the sidewalk. They both have similar-looking, what appear to be, Pitbull-type dogs on leashes. They are probably in their 20s. They are wearing hoodies.
As they arrive at a position adjacent to the cat which is about three paces away, they stop and look at the cat and their dogs and it is clear to me that they decide to set their dogs on the cat. They release the dogs from their leashes and direct them to attack the cat. I believe that I can notice that one of them is smiling at the time and that person may be the one who exclaims “Good boy”, thus confirming his enjoyment in watching his dog attack and potentially kill a cat.
Logically I think it is fair to conclude that these two guys adopted these dogs to be aggressive as a kind of status symbol and perhaps to protect them. They wanted to test out their aggressiveness on an innocent cat. I wonder if the coat color of the cat being black had a bearing on what happened. Black cats are more susceptible to abuse because of superstition. And people of colour are more prone to superstition than white people.
They were filmed by a security camera of which I’m sure they were unaware because their conduct is a crime under any animal welfare laws in America, anywhere. As it happens it took place in Philadelphia’s Frankford neighbourhood.
Buddy’s owner came out of his home and intervened before Buddy was killed. He is seriously ill but apparently, he has no severe internal injuries but multiple dog bites.
He is being cared for at the Pennsylvania SPCA and a spokesperson there, Gillian Kocher, tells us that Buddy is a great character and still enjoys his chin being scratched and he delivers head butts when petted. He is doing well but he is not out of the woods yet.
Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which stops it working here. I have no control over this.
Buddy’s history is tough too. He was a stray in his past life. A local family wanted to adopt him and had him neutered but found that he didn’t like to live inside and so they left food and water out for him on their porch.
If buddy survives, he will be rehomed in the right place with the right person to allow him to enjoy the remainder of his life. We wish him the very best and hope the police find the criminals.
Below are some more articles on dog attacks.
Mike they got the little b@st@rds! And Buddy is still alive! The cops took the dogs. But they are kids and won’t be charged as adults! They turned themselves in.
Thanks for the update. I’ll check this out.
Sicced is pronounced “sicked”. My Random House Unabridged Dictionary says the word is a variant of “seek”. I don’t know how accurate that etymology is, though. A dog killed my first cat, who followed me home from kindergarten, both events in 1959. That and another dog chasing me down and biting one of my ears off, soured me on dogs for several years. I will pray that these cat killers and their dog are taken out of action soon, so no more cats are endangered.
My God, that was a terrible experience. That give someone a dog phobia for life. I was bitten by a dog about 10 years ago and it made me slightly nervous of them. Thanks for the dictionary stuff. And I am sorry to hear that your first cat was killed by a dog. That’s another traumatic experience. I hate the callousness of these guys. No sensibility or sensitivity towards animal welfare. It is crude behavior. Horrible. Too many people like them in the world. Putin comes to mind 😎.
Mike it looks like Buddy might be okay. He’s been disconnected from all the machines. But so far they have found the bad guys or dogs.
https://www.pspca.org/buddy
People all over the world have donated to Buddy’s care. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/donations-well-wishes-from-as-far-as-switzerland-pour-in-for-philadelphia-cat-intentionally-attacked-by-2-dogs/ar-AAVru6B
Scroll past the first video and see Buddy “making biscuits.” So sweet.
https://6abc.com/philadelphia-pa-cat-attack-dogs-video-pennsylvania-spca/11679900/
Black cat 1 Dogs ZERO!
Thanks for posting this Mike. You can never trust a dog that kills. I put down my own dog after she killed a family cat in the house while we were shopping. I could never trust her not to attack a child or another pet. I thought about rehoming her but what if she killed again? Dogs are always killing cats. I hope when these thugs are found the dogs are euthanized because they killed on command and were praised for doing it.