I have read in another place that there is a lot more to it than this one cat. Apparently the dog has also bitten people and dogs.
Having said that - I think the owner should be jailed and the dog rehomed.
If you run someone down with a car - it`s not the car that gets taken to court.

I think the fact that the dog has been ordered to be destroyed is outrageous! We can all make mistakes - no one is perfect. Her dog escaped twice. If the accounts are correct then the first time nothing happened and no-one or animal was hurt. The second time unfortunately her dog injured a cat.

Surely making the dog owner responsible for the vet fees incurred by the cat owner, and ordered to keep her dog under proper control in future would have been sufficient!

Can't give you any more reppies SB but wanted too

Claire can I ask where you read/heard that PM me if you want as I am fairly confident this is not the case.

I don't see anyone saying it is acceptable behaviour, but it can and does happen.

When Pereg was about 6 months old she and Little One killed a kitten. I had clipped them both on to their long fine ropes, opened the door to let them out and this kitten was just outside the door, about a metre away, if that.

Little One grabbed it and shook it. I told her to drop it, which she did, and Pereg picked it up and shook it. She also dropped it on command, but the kitten was sadly dead. Probably from shock as there was not a mark on it.

What was I supposed to do? Have them both PTS for killing one of the numerous kittens that wander about? There is no way I can stop the feral cats and kittens from coming into our yard - cats give birth under my neighbour's bungalow where it is slightly on stilts at the back due to the slope - and twice cats have gotten under the very narrow gap at the bottom of my lean-to mini-garage and given birth on the seat of my scooter.

If Pereg sees a cat in the yard or crossing the path she will take a run at it. How am I supposed to stop her? But at least she cannot get out of the yard, unlike all the other dogs that roam around all the time. I cannot stop them coming in, no more can I stop the cats, and when Pereg was attacked by the stray dog who came into the yard I was the one who had to pay the quite hefty vet bill for cleaning and stapling her wound, and 10 days' supply of antibiotics.

I constantly see staffs in the news Im not trying to put one breed down any more then next but it does seem that the whole status type breeds are very missunderstood (abused more like you just have to look in battersea at the number of dogs that staffs or staff mix's and the whole of essex re homing centres) and thus most people with dogs that may or do attack really dont understand their needs. Im not saying everyone who owns a staff doens't understand it but most the of the ones I know of about maybe two or three people in my whole life who responsibly keep a status type breed its sad but true.

I know now that most staffs turn out to be other breeds but then that goes to show you that most people don't really get dogs at all. By most I dont mean everyone but a good majority or else so many staffs would not end up in re homing centres.

I think perhaps it would be a good idea to throw away your spade now......

As I said before, you are very young and I am sure you mean well but your statements reflect exactly your own ideas, ie the lack of understanding that exists in the general population!

SB, she's not as young as you think! She's older than me...

Pippam, statistically labradors bite more people than any other breed. But that's probably because they are so popular so there are more of them around. There are lots of reasons behind statistics.

Secondly, the media have it in for certain breeds. When a young boy was killed by two dogs some time back they only reported on the Staffie. It was months later when it finally came out that there was also a jack Russell present.

Finally, if there are out of control staffs around your way, it's bad owners not the breed. If Miniature poodles suddenly became popular with idiotic chavvy hoodies who deliberately encouraged their dogs to bs aggressive and never bothered to train them, then there would be a load of ill behaved poodles running around. Would the breed suddenly be bad? No! Just a group of dogs who are poorly raised by their owners.

Yay we agree the whole "staus dog" is misunderstood AND abused.

There are staffs and there crosses in rescue centres up and down the country not just London and Essex. Why? Not because they are a dangerous unpredictable breed that will attack anything that moves. Quite the opposite in fact.

They are over bred because there is a market for them due their appearance and as humans often do they judge by appearance. Many uneducated and often downright stupid people see the lean muscular build with heavy set jaw, head and deep square chest as "hard" they have insecurities themselves or they want to look hard to fit in with their lifestyle so there is a market for the staff and the staff cross.

These dogs are unscrupulously (sp) bred because there is a market, the dogs character and temprament more often than not does not meet the perception of the idiots who want to look hard. They find it is often extremely difficult to train this breed to be human aggressive (I did not say impossible) and therefore the dog does not fit the "look" or purpose they want so it is abandonned

The dogs which have their dog aggressive temprament exploited (and not all staffs are dog aggressive) are illegally fought for entertainment and finacial gain and often just to satisfy the image required ie my dog is harder than yours (equal to my car is faster than yours to my d*ck is bigger than yours mentality) The dog gets too old to fight or too injured to fight and if it is not disposed of either by the owner or in a fight it is abandoned and then becomes another rescue stat.

Oh and add to that the general ignorance and spin doctoring that goes on when tthe media and the ill informed make statements like staffys are dangerous staffys are killersd staffys are unprdictable etc etc and your average owner (for non staus reasons) worries about their child being attacked, their grandkid being attacked etc all because of media spin and another dog or hundred is dumped in rescue.

Rescues are not full of staffs and crosses because they are evil or dangerous or will bite and kill They are full of staffs and their crosses because of ignorance, irresponsible ownership, media spin and like other breeds in some cases ridiculous reasons like a new child, a new sofa, moving home, change in circumstances etc etc