Woman stabbed dog in self-defence after cat attack
A woman in the Hérault has been cleared as “acting in legitimate self-defence” after she killed a neighbour’s dog with a knife when the dog attacked her cat.
The incident happened last December. The woman was sitting on the sofa in her own home, with her two children, when she saw that her neighbour’s hunting dog had escaped, and had attacked the family cat, then holding it captive in its mouth.
The woman tried to get the dog to let go of the cat, first by throwing a shoe at the animal, then hitting it with a broomstick, then a garden chair. But the dog would not let go, even as blood from the cat ran down its mouth, reported news source 20 Minutes.
This caused the woman to grab a kitchen knife, in desperation, to stab the dog, who let go after just one hit.
Both dog and cat died.
The court in Marseille found that her actions had been in “legitimate self-defence”, and that the dog - which had escaped the neighbour’s house and entered the woman’s house unaided - was aggressive, and represented a “threat” to the woman and her children.
