A Toronto K-9 police dog savaged a neighbourhood pet cat after escaping from its handler last Thursday morning.

The attack happened days after the City of Toronto began a crack-down on off-leash dogs.

The K-9 dog was being trained at a vacant school near the Dufferin St. and Dundas St. W. intersection when it broke free from its handler and chased after McGuire, the pet cat of local resident Aidan Moreau-MacLeod.

“It’s unbelievable. My father came home to find McGuire critically injured,” said the 25-year-old Moreau-MacLeod. “The injuries are bad, but, thankfully, not fatal.”

The 18-year-old pet cat went into emergency treatment at Yonge-Davenport Pet Hospital around 10 p.m. June 4 and was moved to an animal hospital in Scarborough on Sunday.

The family is so far out of pocket more than $2,000, which the police say they will cover along with any ongoing veterinary bills.

“It’s had a huge toll on my whole family, but my main concern is why the police are training dogs in a dense residential neighbourhood,” Moreau-MacLeod added.

“I live near a park, a community centre and a daycare centre. We live right next to a family with two young kids, and a good friend of mine nearby has a toddler.

“That’s really the problem.

“The police were incredibly lucky this was a cat and not a small child.”

The family, which insists the police have been co-operative, was informed by a local landscaping company that the cat’s injuries had been caused by a trainee K-9 dog, which the Police Dog Services confirmed to the Star.

Staff Sgt. James Hung vehemently denied that the dog could have attacked a child in the area, as opposed to an animal.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Hung said. “The first characteristic we look for in a dog is that it’s sociable with people. Our dogs are trained to apprehend, not to attack.

“Our dogs go out all the time to school events where millions of kids are petting them.

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“Unfortunately, it’s like the saying goes, they will fight like cats and dogs with animals. They still have certain instincts where they see cats and raccoons as the enemy or prey.”

Hung said dogs are trained in the environment and area where they may end up working. “Dogs will potentially be searching residential areas for suspects or missing people,” he explained.

The Toronto police website says both the handler and dog embark on a 15-week training course in which the duo is taught about obedience, tracking, area searches and the apprehension of criminals.

The dog is about halfway through its training with the Dog Services unit. Police say its training won’t be altered as a result of the attack.