California Dog Owner Lets Pets Maul Cat To Death, 'Violent Attack' Caught On Camera

Two dogs were quarantined after they were caught on camera mauling a cat to death. The incident took place in Merced, California, on Tuesday (April 14).

The Merced Police Department said Tuesday that animal control responded to the scene after receiving a report of a cat being mauled by two dogs. Upon arrival, neither the dogs nor the feline was found. A video of the incident showed a woman and a man making no attempt to stop the attack.

“A bystander obtained video of the incident showing the animals and owners involved. During the violent attack, the dogs were off leash and the owners made no attempt to intervene and stop the attack,” the police department said in a statement on Facebook.

The police department then sought public help in finding the owners of the dogs.

“Merced Police are asking anyone with any information regarding this crime to contact the Merced Police Department Tipster Line at (209) 385-4725. The public can send information via anonymous text messages to police department by dialing 'TIP411' (847411) and including the word 'Comvip' as the 'keyword' in the text message,” they said in a statement.

It was later revealed that only the woman was the owner of the dogs and the man in the video was only a bystander.

“The male subject in the case was determined to be a witness and had no legal standing to the dogs,” the department said in an update on Thursday, adding that the owner of the dog contacted them.

Meanwhile, a resident of Merced commented on the department’s Facebook post that the owner of the cat was contacted as it was chipped.

“It was a rescue cat and lived on the other side of the wall. It was apparently a very sweet cat, who’d gotten a second chance at life before being torn apart by the unleashed dogs,” the man commented. However, there was no information about where the cat was found.

Another woman, who lives in the area, said she believes “these are the same dogs that were caught on our camera running loose in our front yard the night before this attack.”

Investigation into the incident was ongoing and the dogs were taken to “to the Merced County Shelter, where they were placed in mandatory quarantine.”