Animal Control refuses to help; now cat mauled to death

LOUISIANA -- Randall Young says he first contacted Caddo Parish Animal Services three weeks ago about a dog he says was camping out in his yard. He says the dog is a pit bull, and it had puppies under his family's shed.

He said, "The dog came up on me and was growling at me and acting like it wanted to bite me."

Randall Young prepares to bury
his pet cat, which was killed

Young says Animal Services came out three separate times, but never took any action. He said, "They told me they couldn't do anything about it because if they took the mother dog away from her puppies, the puppies would die."

Now, Young says his pet cat was gored to death. "He got a hold of my cat, and tore a hole in her side," he said. Young blames his pet's death on Animal Services' lack of responsive action.

He said, "Another reason they didn't want to get the puppies out is because they can't get under the shed."

To him, the solution would have been simple. "I asked him why he couldn't reach up under the house with a pole and drag the puppies out.," said Young.

Pure laziness from Caddo Parish
Animal Services. Anyone could easily
reach in for the puppies under this shed

Caddo Parish Animal Services Director Everett Harris said nobody witnessed any dog attacking the family's cat. He said, it is unfortunate that the family was aware of the situation, and they continued to allow their pet cat to roam around, putting it at risk.

Harris says the shed was too close to the ground for a human to crawl under, so it was a safety issue, plus they didn't want to take a mother dog away from her puppies.

Unacceptable! First of all, the pit bull mother was described as growling and charging. For whatever reason she is behaving this way, they should have immediately brought out a humane trap and set it up outside the shed. She is nursing puppies so she is ravenous and out searching for whatever food she can find. She would've gone into the trap immediately to get the bait food. Once they have her, they can simply shine a flashlight under the shed and pull out the unweaned pups one by one. Even if they were a bit older and trying to bite, all you need to do is put on some elbow length welding gloves and pull them out. And I'm sure the property owner would've readily agreed to them digging, if the pups weren't easily reachable.

Can you imagine if it were a child, not a cat, that had been attacked? Would he still be blaming the victims?

Caddo Parish Animal Services Director Everett Harris said nobody witnessed any dog attacking the family's cat child. He said, it is unfortunate that the family was aware of the situation, and they continued to allow their pet cat five-year-old child to roam around, putting it at risk.

(KTBS - Nov 16, 2011)