A woman has spoken of the trauma of seeing her kitten mauled by a dog and chasing after it as its teeth sank into the feline’s stomach.
Ten-month-old Soul, a white and black moggy, was put to sleep on Sunday (May 29), hours after suffering a punctured diaphragm and collapsed lungs. Soul’s owner has recounted the horror of seeing the little cat, flopping out either side of the dog's jaws as it bolted through Seacroft.
The dog, a Brindle Lurcher, had the terrified cat in its mouth, for almost half a mile. Soul’s owner Jackie Webster, 49, managed to race after the dog and retrieve him but it was already too late.
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The mother-of-two said, her voice cracking: “When I took him out of the dog’s mouth, I wrapped him in my arms, took him own, put him in a towel and took him straight to the vets.
“As the vets were putting the little IV into his arm, he had both his paws wrapped around my arm. He was just looking at me and he was trying to meow but you could hear there was water or blood in his lungs.
“His little meow was all gurgly. All I could do was comfort him and tell him that he was going to go over the rainbow. That it was going to be okay, that we’d never forget him and we love him. He was just a baby, he’d not had time to live. He’s not had a life."
The lurcher snapped on to Soul at Foundry Mill Terrace where the Webster family reside – Jackie lives there with her two daughters, 19 and 23. Jackie heard a commotion from inside the house just before 8pm and one of her daughters screaming.
She came outside to see the dog whipping around the corner and a man running after it. Jackie says the man claimed he wasn’t the dog’s owner and was equally surprised by the dog’s behaviour.
Jackie ran all the way to South Parkway, 0.4 of a mile away, where she cornered the dog and ordered it to drop Soul. Jackie has experience with dogs and knows how to deal with them, she currently owns one dog, 11 cats and fish.
She claims the man caught up, grabbed the dog and gave it a kicking. Jackie didn’t think to ask for the man’s details as her first instinct was to protect Soul and get him to the vets.
'Cats don’t have a voice'
Jackie said four of her cats were poisoned to death and a dog killed another in the past year.
Jackie said: “It’s rife around Seacroft, it’s like cats don’t have a voice, it’s like they don’t matter. I’m an animal lover throughout but I’m a massive cat lover.
“It's ridiculous, people think it’s just normal that dogs chase cats – dogs kill cats, that’s just what happens. That shouldn’t be allowed. I’ve got a dog as well, and I understand that as a dog owner, I am responsible for her actions.”
The Seacroft woman, a warehouse worker and mobile cleaner, is also beside herself over the hefty bill of £355 which she had to pay to put Soul down. This has potentially ruined her holiday plans which she had been working so hard towards, with masses of overtime resulting in 80-hour working weeks.
Jackie has reported the incident to West Yorkshire Police in the hope of tracking down the dog and its owner.
A spokesperson for the force said: “On Monday, May 23, police received a report of a cat having been attacked and killed by a dog on Foundry Mill Terrace, Leeds.
“The incident is currently being investigated and a number of enquiries are ongoing. Anyone who witnessed the offence or has information is asked to contact the Leeds Inner East NPT referencing crime number 13220287745.”
Information can be given on 101 or online at www.westyorkshire.police.uk/101livechat.
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