Japanese Akita eats cats

gomer

sturll wrote: »

Thank you all for your comments, the reason i posted on here was to get a mix of advice and information and even opinion.

A few things, of the 3 cats 1 has been killed in my garden and 2 have been killed when she has escaped. As i said i live in a village so sadly its not as easy as erecting a 12 foot fence with inch spacing but believe me i have tried to do what i can. I will take the advice on board and hopefully get this sorted out.

As for putting her down this (as arrogant as this may sound) is simply not an option. I have had her for 11 years and consider her part of the family, how could i possibly find it within me to take her life for doing what is essentially her instinct.

In regards to my children - they are aged 7,4 and 1. Not once, as she ever been anything other than a friend, a protector and a good ride for them. I am serious, i put her harness on and children when younger would ride around the garden on her. In the summer when she was sprawled out bathing they would lie with her. In terms of humans she has nothing but respect and love. Even the postman comes in when she is outside. I really cannot express how gentle this animal is.

However, when it comes to cats that changes and that is the problem. It would be interesting to know why she has never actually eaten one though? She for whatever reason inflicts brutality upon it and then finds satisfaction. Again, i more or less let the first cat go, i assumed it must have been on a suicide mission since it had come in my garden. (looking back i wish id addressed this issue then) But knowing that she leaves the garden when she gets opportunity to find a cat is disturbing and hence why i have to do something about it. I mean there are miles and miles of fields surrounding me she could really let herself go but she doesnt, she wonders down the road and finds a cat and then simply came home.

Thank you again for all your advice. I am going on holiday today (friend is looking after my house and dog) and when i return i will be sure to put into action some of the suggestions. I will update this in the future to let you know what worked.

Thank you again and hope you all have a wonderful new year.

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.

studentgirl_2

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.

shoppaholic_returns

Hi studeent girl,my akita lives with a couple of bengals and a moggy,probably why they get on!!!:rolleyes:

Hay_2

Notsosharp wrote: »

What came first the staffie or the cats? I don't mean to offend but honestly I think you need to either rehome the staffie or the cats, you can't cling onto them for sentimental reasons because sooner or later that staffie IS going to get one of the cats. If you knew the staffie didn't like cats from the start why on earth get it with cats in the house. Accept that some dogs don't like cats and therefore they should not be homed with them. There are places that will never put a healthy dog down so as long as you made sure it was one of these places I am sure he would be fine. I know its really not fair on the dog to put him in kennels but then again it can't be nice for the cats either.

And as much as I love my dog if he killed or injured one of my cats I am sorry but he would have to go. I would NEVER look at him the same again and I would NEVER trust him again. I have had all of my cats from tiny kittens and I would be devestated if either my dog or someone else's got hold of them and believe me there would be hell to pay for the dogs owner. Why is a dog that attacks cats acceptable?
As for the OP the only thing you really can do is do everything within your power to make sure it never happens again. If it does and the cat's owner knew that you were aware the dog attacks and kills cats they could quite easily sue you I think.

No offence taken~everyone is entitled to their opinion.
We didn't get the Staff knowing he had such an intense dislike for cats.He was only a few months old and at the start of his life with us he'd happily sleep on the bed alongside the cats.One day he had a bit of a disagreement with one of them,the cat went for him and his prey drive kicked in.Since then he's been unable to be allowed near them at all.

Personally I don't think a dog that attacks cats is remotely acceptable.That's why our garden has a fully enclosed 8ft fence and a double bolted and padlocked.He is NEVER walked off lead and is long lined in fields.
It's a horrible situation to be in.I layed in bed with my Rottie and three of the cats curled up around her this morning which was lovely and we used to be able to do the same with the Staff:(

YorkiePud_3

I think people are forgetting the main point here.

I mean, yes, dogs and cats were never meant to be best friends and it's only in rare circumstances they tolerate each other ... ok, we all know and understand that!! (Having said that, I know a lady who takes rescue cats in and at present she has 29 cats living in peace with an old greyhound ... the exception to the rule I guess!)

Most cat owners worry like hell when their cats are out ... but come to a sort of acceptance that something MIGHT happen to them, given their curiousity and their need to investigate nooks and crannies in gardens.

My dogs have always been pestered in my garden by neighbourhood cats ... but I accepted that there was no way I could stop the cats coming in and I spoke to their owners and said, look, if I shout or throw a stone at my shed roof (NOT aimed at the cat, but to bang on the corrugated bit, make a clatter and scare the cat off), is that ok? And they all said yes, of course ...

But after all that, when I found a little cat who had been hurt, I decided she was coming indoors to live ... now, I know not everyone has the set up where they can just bring a cat indoors like that, so I don't and wouldn't expect cat owners to do that, don't get me wrong!!

The second stray who came into my garden was a bag of bones .. a terrible sight. It took me months to gain her trust, but she would never come indoors. After some time though, she would come into my conservatory and I have her using a litter tray in there. I feed her and she sleeps in there at night with the door shut.
I frequently ask the neighbours if she has messed in their gardens, and the answer is no ... but I have always said, if you see her do anything, chase her out and come shout me and I will clean up any mess.
Well, there has to be give and take on both sides doesn't there?
Up to now though, it seems she is coming home to "do her stuff" ...

She's paying more visits into the house though so I think she will eventually come indoors to live .. which will solve all problems and I will be able to take her out on a harness so she gets the best of both worlds.

Sorry, I digress ... but wanted to let you know I wasn't anti cats and just on one side of the argument!! I can see it from both sides.

The main problem here is that this beautiful but powerful dog CAN get out of the garden ... surely the most important thing is to doggy proof the garden so that it can't ... ???
As has been said ... there is acceptance that if a cat gets in the garden well ... que sera sera .. although no one wants a dog OR a cat getting hurt, but it happens; cats will be cats, dogs will be dogs ... but if that dog got out and chased a cat across a road, causing a car to crash, then the OP would be liable, because they would say the dog wasn't under any control.

You can't control what comes into your garden ... but you can make sure there are no possibilities of your dog getting OUT of it ... nobody wants anything to happen to your dog OP or for it to cause any accidents, so I think the first thing you need to do when you get home is to make your garden like Fort Knox so Houdini there cannot escape!!

SkipE

sturll wrote: »

A few things, of the 3 cats 1 has been killed in my garden and 2 have been killed when she has escaped. As i said i live in a village so sadly its not as easy as erecting a 12 foot fence with inch spacing but believe me i have tried to do what i can. I will take the advice on board and hopefully get this sorted out.


As for putting her down this (as arrogant as this may sound) is simply not an option. I have had her for 11 years and consider her part of the family, how could i possibly find it within me to take her life for doing what is essentially her instinct.

I have read and re read the original post but postponed commenting till now.

I have a cat. If your dog killed my cat whilst it was roaming the street, unsupervised - be it a mistake or not, I would do whatever I possibly could to take action against you as the dog owner as you have let this happen twice before. I have no idea what the law is but I would research it with every inch of my brain power and write to MPs, Police, Dog Wardens or whoever would listen (probaly not many people with my mad ravings!! )

There is NO excuse for your pet to kill another when in the street. You consider your dog part of your family. I consider my cat part of my family. She is my baby I dont have a human one

The fact your dog plays nicely with your children would not comfort me at night knowing my cat had been mauled to death by your dog.

The first cat being killed in your garden despite the upset it will cause the owner of the cat is more understandable. Your dog was in its own terrority and in this situation I doubt there was much more you could have done.

But to let it get free not once but twice more to KILL. I dont understand this. Has there been other occasions when the dog has escaped and not killed anything? Or does it kill each time it is let out?

I do agree it is admirable that you have come on here asking for advice on this matter and arent just ignoring it. However, this is just an internet forum. None of us are experts. You have no obligation to any of us to recitify this situation. You need to seek professional advice as soon as you return from your holiday.

If you cant build a fence, build a run, if you dont want to build a run dont let your animal outside your boundry unspervised.

I do hope the person caring for your family pet is aware of the situation and ensures the dog does not escape in your absence to kill once more.

I wish you much luck resolving this situation I really do. Fingers crossed theres a happy ending for all!

orlao

gomer wrote: »

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 familie'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 have you prosecuted if thier cat is attacked by your dog & your dog could be forcefully removed from your custody 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.

Very very well said gomer:T :T

As a fellow Rottie owner i couldn't agree more.

I wasn't aware of this new law and as much as I would love to see the DDA repealed this could open a whole new can of worms:eek:

Mrs_pbradley936

I really cannot believe some of the nonsense I am reading on here. Dogs and cats are animals. I repeat animals. You cannot give them human ideals about right and wrong or good and bad they are guided by instincts. It just so happens that this dog has a highly developed instinct towards attacking cats. Now for the good of its owners morals the fewer cats it has access to the better. The dog could care less it will not feel guilt, shame or regret at killing a cat. Anymore than a cat would feel those emotions if it killed a bird.

People who try and give animals human attributes do animals a grave disservice. You must keep them safe from their instincts at times in this case trying to limit access to cats but I would not muzzle my own dog in my own garden! The cat owner is to blame as much as they would be if the cat was run over i.e. cat in garden ends up dead, cat in road ends up dead. In neither case is the dog or the car to blame, the cat was where it ought not to have been.

Mrs_pbradley936

I should like to add that if the dog is outside and attacks then that is the owners fault. You should get a smaller fenced in area with a roof so that you know where she is if unsupervised.

Mrs_pbradley936

orlao wrote: »

Very very well said gomer:T :T

As a fellow Rottie owner i couldn't agree more.

I wasn't aware of this new law and as much as I would love to see the DDA repealed this could open a whole new can of worms:eek:

This is just another idiotic proposal by those who know nothing about animals. I expect they want it to mean dogs kept for fighting that are known to be a problem - but this could mean friendly pets that have chased (and caught) a squirrel in the park!