Japanese Akita eats cats

Mutter_2

studentgirl wrote: »

You poor thing, Im the owner of two BIG boy bengal cats, who dominate the local area, they will fight cats and dogs. They really hurt on of the jack russels next door ( there are 3 one them in one home ) if the cats see them out they will chase them back into there homes and wont let them out. I felt so bad about this, we have a time table as to when the cats and dogs go out now. It works well as we dont have a cat flap so can control them. In the summer if my neighbour is out and her dogs are in the garden with her she hoses them with water, they dont go back that day He he he :beer:

I do understand what one poster said about destroying the dog as to have your pet killed is not nice, but this is extream.

You don't appear to be an animal lover. He he he.

lil_me

Oh dear a relative of mine has a greyhound who's killed a few, bit icky, unfortunately her neighbour still allowed her other cats in her garden so not much she could do other than muzzle him in the garden. Same with a friend who had a westie but rather than muzzle she enclosed her garden inc a mesh roof to keep them out.

(Personally I believe no animals should be allowed to roam, especially after being injured as a child by a cat I think if someone keeps an animal they should be responsible for it and if cats are too wild, allow them to be wild, don't try to domesticate then they will keep their distance from humans and not hurt them, but that's another matter and my personal opinion because I was injured by one)

Agree if you need a licence for one animal you take in public you should have them for all, cats and dogs, every single one should be microchipped and the owner responsible for looking after them appropriately including not allowing them to be a nuisance to others! Ask a postman what dog he's been bitten by and you'll probably be suprised, ours was bitten by a Corgi.

sad_dog_lady

hmm. we havee 3 cats ..did have 5 at one stage with dogs, our most recent dog does lke to chaise cats but knows she is not permitted to hurt one from her pack... however on walks if she see's a cat she will want to get to it, unfortunetly for her she cant , but if my cat were to stray into a garden of a dog who is not cat friendly i would think stupid cat.. sorry but they can jump, run and smell the dog, this is instinctive, my cats are ofcourse mad as we all have contagious insanity , but i would never blame the dog or owner... its instinct. i think the lion poo idea is brilliant.

Mutter_2

There is such nonsense spouted here.
OP, just get a boarded gate and lock it from the inside. I did it, many thousands did it. Our dogs don't get out to kill.

My garden borders on to open fields. Having seen the naughtiness arrive home green with cow poo, and trying not to laugh, we stock proofed. Post and rail so as not to spoil the view, lined with stock wire mesh, a boarded timber gate, LOCKED from the inside completes the enclosure.
Seems simple to me, so what is your problem?

shoppaholic_returns

Terrible new law,I have a 50kg teddy bear,shes fantastic with other animals,and humans and children alike,and my postie,who I will re-iterate from my last post says that of the dogs that attacked him and bit last yr, only 1 was a large dog!!

What a load of old rubbish,beurocracy gone mad,again!!Big dogs are easy targets though,arent they!

shoppaholic_returns

And mutter,I certainly agree with you,we are in the country and have managed to dog proof several acres,to prevent other dogs coming on to our land.

LittleTinker

The OP quite clearly says that 2 of these attacks have happened when the dog got out of the garden.
So it is all very well and good having a garden that cats cant get into but no good whatsoever if the irresponsible owner cannot keep their dog in the garden.

There is no excuse....especially after knowing the dog will kill. If you must leave your dog unsupervised in the garden then you should make sure that there is no way on earth he can get out.....even IF someone leaves open a gate!!

It means keeping him tethered or making a smaller pen. Im sure you will say "Its not fair to keep him cooped up".......but at the end of the day if he is getting the very long runs he needs each day, then he doesnt need to be in the garden at all on his own.

Some breeds of dogs will go for cats especially when they are bored or under exercised. So my suggestion would be to make sure he IS getting his 10 mile run everyday and isnt left to his own devices running round a garden.

MrsE_2

sturll wrote: »

I have a Japanese Akita and a problem.

Several years ago she killed a cat, didn't eat it just killed it. It came in my garden and i just assumed it was animal instincts taking over. (The owner attempted to sue me for vet costs but it failed)

Then about a year ago she killed another, someone had left my gate open (i have a huge garden where she roams free) and she went out and killed a cat. Then when i realised she was gone i called her back and she just came back. No problems at all, as if it was all in a days work.

Christmas eve i noticed she wasn't in the garden and she didnt respond to me calling her, i went looking for her but could not find her, when i got home she was waiting, covered in blood and smelling of cats urine.

Regarding her temprement she is so soft, she has never so much as sniffed at a human, i have 3 young children who ride on her back and she loves it. When they play in the garden she follows them from the front round to the back as if she is keeping an eye on them. She is aged 11.

My question is obviously its awful to think that some family came home Christmas eve and had a dead cat waiting for them (i tried to find out who it was to no avail) Apart from restraining her how can i stop this increasingly popular habit she has?

Any genuine help would be apprecaited.

I think if you have a large powerful (potentially dangerous) dog you need to KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL at all times.
Suspose those two times she "got out" she attacked a child or a child holding her new kitten.................

I think if you have a dog you should keep it within your fences or under your supervision outside them, if you were my neighbour I would be involving the police as you seem unable or unprepared to contain your own dog properly.

MrsE_2

UKTigerlily wrote: »

Agreed, which is exactly why the OP is here right now asking for advice! And I definitely agree that that's why so many Staffs are up for rehoming.

The advice is not to let her dog out of her garden on it own

I'm susprised she needs to ask this

MrsE_2

gomer wrote: »

It's a difficult situation to manage when the cat is entering your property but i think the fact that the other cats were effectivly hunted down outside the property would really suggest that you need to be more vigilant in making sure the dog doesn't escape in the first place. Although you can't be blamed for cats entering your property, you need to understand that this first incident in the garden was where your dog got it's first taste for cats & from that point onwards you were never going to be able to let your guard down but it appears that you have done just that more than once. All dogs experience the thrill of the chase at some point and find out how exciting it can be but most dogs don't actually catch the cat & just see them as something to chase, your dog did catch it which makes a lot of difference to how it views cats, it now sees the cat as it's 'reward' at the end of the chase. I know it's not as simple as enclosing the garden with high fences but the key thing to remember is that on the occasions where the dog escaped you didn't notice until afterwards that she was not in the garden & that really comes down to lack or at the very least a momentary breach of supervision.

I know she's fantastic with kids etc but it's not what goes on inside the property you need to worry about, you have a duty to protect other people's pets from this sort of behaviour because in short it's just not acceptable & if i am being honest i don't think you'd be too popular if you lived near me and i personally would have reported you to the police by now if you were my neighbour. I own a Rottweiler & also face the same problem, she's never got hold of a cat but came very close on one occasion when a cat wandered into our garden, i have no doubts whatsoever that she would have killed it if she had caught it but fortunately i was in the garden & managed to hang onto her collar just a few seconds long enough for the cat to jump over the fence.

I am a firm believer that accidents don't just 'happen', they happen when we lapse concentration for just a split second. If you look at all the attacks we hear about on kids you'll always notice that at the crucial moment the dog was not being supervised 100%. I'd be horrified if my dog had killed 1 cat let alone 3 & i think by now i'd be asking myself why it keeps happening. Once is really bad luck but 2 & 3 times starts to look a bit like lessons aren't being learned, the point is she had a 'success' the first time so now she knows that she is able to do things to other cats, which means you can't trust her completely where cats are concerned & can never let your guard down because she is now actively seeking them. We are talking about prey drive here, not just accidently stumbling on a cat by accident, but actively hunting for them & that's different because you can't just switch it off.

It's tricky owning a persecuted breed because you don't want people to be frightened of them but at the same time you want the dog to live a normal life, but you have to remember that other people have a right to expect the same quality of life for thier pet be it a cat or a dog thier pet is as much a loved part of thier family as your dog is to yours. If i were in your situation i would have stopped leaving the dog unsupervised for even a second in the garden because Akita's are extremely intelligent opportunists with a high prey drive & your one has learned it has the ability to use that prey drive to it's full devastating potential. It's all well and good saying someone else left the gate open but it's not up to other people to ensure your dog can't escape - that's your responsibility, if my dog escapes because someone else left the gate open then it's my fault for not making sure it was shut & i'd be even more vigilant where gates were concerned if i knew my dog had escaped before and killed a neighbours cat. You need to stop being complacent and accept that you just cannot keep taking unnecessary risks like this with the safety of other people's pets. If you can't guarantee 100% that your dog wont escape while nobody is watching it then stop letting it roam free in the garden. You know what your dog has done before and you know exactly what it is capable of doing again - wise up!

These are very worrying times for owners of large breed dogs & you need to seriously step up your vigilance because certain breeds have a bad enough reputation as it is & it sounds like this dog is being given far too many opportunities to get near cats. You have to remember that society will not tolerate this sort of thing & frankly i think you have been very lucky the village hasn't got a petition up by now and taken action against you themselves, it's only a matter of time before your dog picks on the wrong family's pet and you find yourself in serious trouble.

Admittedly the law does not treat attacks on another animial the same way as an attack on a human but that will all change if the new Dog Control Bill 2008 that is currently being drafted in the House Of Lords gets passed by Parliament because it will mean the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 gets repealed & it will then be a criminal offence punishable by law for your dog to attack a person OR another animal. Read section 2 (e) - 'No person shall keep a dog that has attacked a person or another animal.'

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldbills/009/09009.i-i.html#j001

You really need to be very concerned about the implications this new law could have on your dog if it does get passed in Parliament next year because people will be able to prosecute you if thier cat is attacked by your dog & your dog could be forcefully removed from your custody if it carries on behaving like this and put to sleep & taking into account this is the 3rd time it has killed a cat i can't see the law having much sympathy with you. I would be very worried about letting it out of my sight for a second if this was my dog, i certainly wouldn't be letting it roam free in the garden unsupervised because all it takes is a second for it to escape - as you have found out more than once & if you are not careful you could find yourself being thought of as being an incredibly irresponsible dog owner, this certainly isn't a very good advert for Japanese Akita's and it's situations like this that give certain breeds such a bad reputation & at the moment you are in danger of doing the breed a grave dis-service.


All it would take is enough people to complain about you and you could find yourself having to say goodbye to your dog for good. In my opinion (as the owner of a large persecuted breed) i think you need to take this very very seriously & never leave your dog unattended in the garden for a second because quite clearly you can't trust it 100% not to make a 'mistake'. Don't assume that just because the kids are in the garden with the dog that nothing will go wrong, it's not up to the kids to make sure the garden is secure. You need to make sure the garden is propery secure before you let the dog out, rather than finding out afterwards (when it's too late) that the gate was open - it's little lapses in concentration like this that have lead to children being killed by large dogs and collectively as the owners of our type of breed it's up to all of us to challenge the publics perception of 'dangerous dogs', rather than justify what they already thought all along about them being nasty vicous beasts that shouldn't be kept as pets.

Please don't think any of this is having a go at you personally but i'm not going to faff around, you need to understand that you are completely 100% responsible for what your dog is doing. As the owner of a large powerful breed i am extremely concerned about the way this looks, this really isn't the sort of image we want to be projecting to the public. It is very rare for any dog to kill 1 cat, but for the same dog to have done it several times is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about how it has been able to repeadedly get near enough to attack a cat in the first place & clearly something is going very wrong with your management for this to have happened so many times. The first time should have been enough to have signified that this dog was going to need extremely effective management where cats are concerned to prevent it from ever happenening again. At the end of the day as dog owners we are responsible for the behaviour of our pets in public & it does appear that you have failed to heed the warning signs and prevent another cat from being killed & another family from suffering the horrific loss of thier beloved pet because of your dog's completely unacceptable behaviour.

If everyone who owned a large dog was like you, there would be no need of the dangerous dogs act, no stories in newspapers, no problems.
I REALLY do wish all dog owners were like you.