Cat mauled to death in horror attack by out-of-control dogs

Sara Rathnayake, 62, of Westhill Road in Wyke Regis, suffered the tragic loss of her cat Riley after two dogs came into her front garden and attacked Riley whilst she was sleeping.

Sara was sitting at her home when she heard a commotion outside that she thought was two dogs fighting.

The next minute she heard her cat "screaming" amongst the sound of the dogs fighting.

Miss Rathnayake said: "I ran outside and there were two dogs both off the lead in the front garden and one of the dogs was ragging my cat really badly.

Sara said Riley was sunning herself in the front garden when the two dogs burst in and attacked her (Image: Tom Lawrence)

"There wasn’t anyone there with them. I shouted ‘someone’s dogs are killing my cat’

"Then a guy came flying into my garden and grabbed hold of the main dog attacking my cat.

"One of them was really ragging as the other was biting Riley."

Still shaken by the incident, Miss Rathnayake added: "I was just standing there, I didn’t know what to do, should I intervene?

"If I intervened would I have got mauled, perhaps I should have intervened and then she would be ok.

"But he was ragging her so badly.

"It was horrific, I can’t get it out of my head, I have flashbacks of it all the time."

After managing to grab Riley and get it out of reach of the dogs, Sara rushed her to a vet.

The vet told Sara and her family that the attack had left Riley with ruptured intestines and that operating would only have a five per cent chance of success

The vet recommended that Riley be put down.

Riley the cat was put down after it was unlikely she would survive from her injuries (Image: Sara Rathnayake)

Miss Rathnayake said: "She had to be put down.

"She was only seven, she probably had ten years left.

"It is the most tragic, frenzied attack I have ever seen in my whole life."

After Riley's death, Sara contacted the dog warden about the dogs which attacked her cat.

However, after waiting over two weeks she was disappointed that she had not received any reply from the dog warden.

She said: "I got in contact with the dog warden, she rang me back and she said she had been to the house and had no answer, so she will write him a letter.

"The last time I contacted her was on September 13 and I haven’t heard a thing back since then.

"For me, that is not good enough.

"I’m not asking for the dogs to be put down, I am an animal lover, but it was a frenzied attack, what would have happened if there was a child like my grandson?

"I want those dogs muzzled and on leads all the time. If you can’t recall your dog, they shouldn’t be off the lead. You should know your own dog."

A spokesperson for Dorset Council said: "The procedure for this kind of situation is that we will advise the dog owner of measures that they need to put into place to prevent the dog from carrying out the same behaviour towards another cat.

"The measures can be various and normally advised by us.  

"We follow this up in a letter which also says, 'as you are now aware that your dog has the propensity to injure/kill a cat, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 you could be prosecuted for causing unnecessary suffering should this happen again in the future'."