After beloved bodega cat is killed by pitbulls, residents act against dogs' owner
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, Manhattan -- He's a well-known and beloved bodega cat, and now, after someone let their pitbulls attack him, the cat, named Freddy, is gone.
The attack enraged neighbors and activists, who are now working to ensure that legal action is taken against the dog owner.
The attack took place on 158th Street, around the corner from the Amsterdam Avenue flower shop, called Michelle Flowers, where Freddy the Cat works.
On Friday, June 27, according to witnesses, a woman who owns at least two pitbulls let them attack Freddy after he'd wandered around the corner from the flower shop where he usually holds court.
"He's really a nice cat. I see him all the time," said Deborah Harmon, a Bronx resident who said that she's on the block where the flower shop is nearly daily.
"But my thing is this," she continued. "People need to stop. That cat never bothered nobody."
The attack, which took place at around 9:00 p.m. on June 27, was captured on surveillance video. It shows the two dogs attack and severely wound the cat, leaving him to die under a parked car.
People who were with the dogs' owner cheered and applauded the attack, according to the video and eyewitness accounts, activists said.
"What they thought was that nobody cared, that it was a cat nobody cared about," said Nicole Craft, a director of The Cat Collective, an advocacy group for cats. "But it was a cat that a lot of people cared [about]," she said.
Her organization has launched a GoFundMe to raise money for a reward for information leading to the owner of the dogs who carried out the attack.
The group had originally offered a $200 reward for information leading to the identity of the dogs' owner. Thanks to the success of the fundraising effort, that award amount is now $500, according to The Cat Collective, whose leaders say they expect the reward to go even higher, thanks to the GoFundMe continuing to grow.
Craft acknowledged that the attack on Freddy the Cat by the dogs, while tragic, is not considered criminal in state or city code.
However, she alleges, something else happened that is criminal.
"They're abusing their dogs," she said, claiming that the pitbull owner exhibited acts of cruelty toward her dogs in ways that could be in violation of state law.
Activists also said that past cases of attacks on cats by dogs on the Upper West Side may also provide a precedent for legal action in this case. Craft, from The Cat Collective, said that possible civil charges may also be filed against the owner of the pitbulls.
"It's the people that have abused those dogs, and then using the dogs to kill cats, that's the problem," Craft said. "Hopefully those dogs are saved, and hopefully we can save more cats," she added.