Cat Mauls Pit Bull
On Sunday, January 8, 2006, at approximately 8:40 p.m., I let my American Pit Bull Terrier, Tauri, outside into my fenced backyard to go to the bathroom. She encountered a neighborhood cat that attacked her. Tauri has been raised with cats. She has never, to my knowledge, harmed a cat.
This trespassing feline entered my back yard and injured my dog, causing her injuries that are are definitely more than minor and caused me to take time off from work to get Tauri veterinary medical care. In addition to the vet bills, there is pain and suffering Tauri has experienced (though being a typical Bully, she is taking it in stride), and the fact that she now has to take antibiotics every day for a while.
Here are Tauri's injuries. Both the feline and its owners have escaped consequences. I'm required to keep my dog in my yard, and if my dog were to escape and injure a cat, the headlines would read: 'Pit Bull mauls cat.' However, a cat can come into MY fenced back yard, injure MY dog, and there are no calls to ban free-roaming cats. No calls to require all cats be spayed or neutered. No outcries proclaiming "first it's a dog... then it's a child.
Here is Tauri, a victim of a vicious attack. Below, you can see the extreme swelling on the left side of the photo, near eye
The photo below shows the most serious wound after a visit to vet and a thorough cleaning.
Cat Bites are very dangerous and are six times more likely to become infected than are dog bites. In fact, about 50% of cat bites become infected. http://www.chako.org/catbites.html
Cat bites can easily be fatal if not promptly treated! Think about that when deciding what animals pose dangers. Also, some folks are going to say the reason cats should not be restrained is they don't bite people. (In fact, a Fresno viewer reports Fresno's ABC, 6:30 news aired the story and made such an uneducated comment). Well, of course, it took me, a simple blogger, less than 10 seconds to find a second story to prove that assertion wrong. http://www.local6.com/print/5890364/detail.html A Rabid cat bit 15 people and 2 dogs.
(For the first story, click on Cat bites can easily be fatal, above).
Some professional journalists, I realize, are too busy to be bothered with doing actual research before commenting on stories. Lest you think I am anti-cat (or that Tauri is), a picture speaks a thousand words. Here is Tauri with my cat, Jax:
Check out the Original Channel 10 broadcast, Sacramento:
http://www.news10.net/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=15280