Pack of pit bulls roaming neighbourhood attacks and kills cat on Christmas Eve

Jane Seyd, North Shore News
Published: Saturday, December 31, 2005

NORTH VANCOUVER

Sheila Hughes spent what should have been a quiet Christmas Eve dealing with the horrifying spectacle of watching her cat killed by a pack of roaming pit bulls.

Hughes said her cat was attacked outside her house on Windsor Road as three dogs roamed loose in her Upper Lonsdale neighbourhood.

"They were looking for a kill and found our cat and ripped it to shreds in front of us," she said.

Now she's pleading with authorities not to let the dogs go back to their owner in case they attack again. Hughes said the dogs are scary, and she's afraid a small child could fall victim to the pack unless someone reins them in.

Neighbours saw the dogs chase her 13-year-old cat Zack from Hughes' driveway and across the street before setting on it in a yard across the street. "The dogs killed him right there," she said. "There was nothing we could do."

Hughes said even more scary was the dogs' aggressive behaviour towards anyone who tried to come near them.

"They'd come halfway across the street and growl at us," she said. "They had the taste of blood in their mouths."

The dogs are being kept at the SPCA pound in Vancouver while authorities decide what to do with them.

Calls to the dogs' owner were not returned by press time.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005