Source: Shutterstock/Verkhovynets Taras

PET OWNERS IN Cork city are being warned to be vigilant after a series of attacks on cats by youths handling dogs.

Cork’s Cat Hospital has warned that gangs of young boys are stealing pets as bait for their dogs.

“Please be aware that there are people in Mayfield area actively looking for cats to harm,” a post on the hospital’s Facebook reads.

Source: The Cat Hospital/Facebook

The two cats pictured in the post were apparently rescued from “men who wished to harm them”.

One Cork woman has described how she saw up to six children set two greyhound-type dogs on a stray kitten that her father had been feeding regularly.

The incident happened at around 7.45pm on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to the Neil Prendiville Show on Cork’s Red FM Stephanie O’Connor said that her mother heard a commotion outside their home in Gurranabraher on the city’s northside.

“She looked out the window and saw three young fellas on the wall, clapping and cheering and giggling, and there were two greyhound or lurcher-type dogs ripping a kitten apart,” Stephanie said.

She was banging at the window and screaming and they just didn’t care.

The kitten was apparently a stray that Stephanie’s father had befriended and was feeding regularly. The youths remained where they were until Stephanie’s brother saw them off.

She described her mother as being “traumatised” following the experience, and said that the children in question, who are aged no more than 12 or 13, have been all over the north of the city looking for pets to steal.

There’s about six of them, and they had been looking in the garden before. When they finally left they just carried on, like that’s one down let’s get onto the next one.

“A friend of mine saw them holding a cat by the tail and running up to the dogs with it. It’s sick. I don’t know what to say or think,” Stephanie added.

There have been a spate of incidents of animal cruelty in Cork in recent months. In August a small dog died from his injuries after having his throat slashed and being stabbed in the back.

Anyone who has knowledge about the use of cats for baiting can contact the ISPCA’s cruelty line on 1890 515515