UK: Dog Kills Cat and Police Do Nothing

When the Suffolk police were told by Mr Crawford that a dog had come into his front garden and savaged his cat to death, they passed the buck to the local authority’s dog warden (animal control) despite the fact that it was highly likely that a crime had taken place. The dog warden wrote a letter to the dog’s owner. We haven’t seen the letter but it can’t be enough, surely?

I am sorry to say that the attitude of the police is unsurprising. They no doubt considered the potential crime too minor. Many police forces in the UK do nothing about more serious crimes while massaging crime statistics at the same time. Many Brits have lost faith in the police over the years.

Sassy, a 16-year-old-cat, was sleeping in the garden. Along comes a dog which entered the garden and grabbed Sassy in his teeth and shook her close to death. She died soon after of a suspected heart attack.

The police in this instance have abdicated their responsibilities. This was almost certainly a crime. You only have to visit the government website (gov.uk) on the subject of controlling your dog in public to understand that.

In the UK, either in a public or private place, a dog is considered to be out of control if he/she:

• injuries someone
• makes a person worried that she/he might be injured
• injures an animal
• the owner of an animal believes she/he may be injured if she intervenes in an attack by a dog on her companion animal

Clearly the law covers the attack on Sassy so why didn’t the police take action to uphold the law? They aren’t that interested are they?

This is another example of the authorities treating a cat “as only a cat”. An animal of low value.

Recently the second most senior politician the UK, George Osborne, set a bad example with respect to cat caretaking when he and his family consistently let their cat wander across streets heavy with traffic. Their cat was recently injured. One day she will be killed unless she is lucky.

A greater value needs to be placed on companion animals including the domestic cat. There is a need for greater respect for the cat.