Marauding dog pack tears family pet apart

A cat who was a much loved family pet was killed by a pack of marauding hunting dogs at a house in Moynalty on Sunday. The heart-broken elderly owners of the cat say the dogs attacked the family pet which was sleeping in the sun, and then ran through the house, frightening family members and causing chaos. Mrs Rosemary Smith said it was very lucky that her great grandchildren hadn"t been playing in the garden at the time as she doesn"t know what would have happened it they had been there. The horrific incident happened around 2pm on Sunday when a pack of around 14 hounds surrounded the house. 'Hoppy", a three-legged cat who had been a family pet for 18 years, was torn to shreds and four of the dogs rang into the house, some through the front hall and others through the kitchen. 'I met one of the dogs in the hall and I was afraid it would snap at me. My husband is 90 years-old and it was lucky they didn"t knock him over,' said Mrs Smith. 'My son"s three little grandchildren are usually here on a Sunday and could have been running around outside. What would have happened to them?' she asked. Mrs Smith said her son has a little dog who isn"t bigger than a cat and, if she had been there at the time, this dog 'would have been flittered' too. 'It is heart-breaking. Hoppy was a real pet and loved to lie in the sun. She had only three legs since she was injured when she was very young,' she said. Mrs Smith was annoyed that a group of men with guns who were hunting with the dogs hadn"t bothered to call up their hounds. She said she wanted to make people aware of what happened and warned that the situation could have been much worse if there had been children in the vicinity.