Cat walking off lead

I understand dogs. I just don’t think their desire to chase overrides the rights of other animals to feel safe.

My old dog I had no problem with him chasing birds etc because a) like you say, he’d never get one and b) his recall was perfect so if he got too boisterous I could easily call him back (although I still wouldn’t have walked him off lead around livestock). But I certainly wouldn’t have let him chase cats, regardless of whether or not he would have actually caught one or what he would have done if he’d managed to — that’s just unnecessarily cruel to the cat.

My current dog doesn’t have perfect recall so she’s only off lead in the garden. Everywhere else she’s on a long line she she’s under control at all times.

My old Siamese was very partial to a walk with his family in fields near us. I would have been very upset if an out of control dog with no recall ran at him.

I think the posters saying this sort of thing fundamentally don't understand dogs.
There's a massive difference between chasing a cat/squirrel/rabbit and actually catching and killing one. The vast majority of dogs would never kill even if they somehow managed to catch something. It's the chasing they like, it's a game.

I'm so glad that your cat recovered and perhaps I'm naive to think my dogs (my dogs are same size as most cats) wouldn't hurt a cat.

I walk my cat on a lead - but my sisters cat used to tag along with her when she walked the dog, not on a lead. TBF, he'd probably have scarpered pretty quickly if chased.
It was your dog that was out of control.
Why is it any different to any cat that roams freely

How bizarre! We did actually once have a cat who would follow us on short walks (we stayed within a comfortable distance to our house where we knew was part of his roaming ground), but if a dog had come along we wouldn't have been annoyed with it behaving like a dog! Cats are pretty good at making themselves scarce usually

Thank you @EraOfTheGrey that's kind of you. It's unusual to witness it, but the vet nurse said they can tell anyway by the type of injury - a dog will pick up a cat and shake it like a toy, fracturing or rupturing body parts. (My cat did recover.)

Aw, that's horrible. I'm so sorry that happened.

People walk cats? 😳

My apartment backs onto a canal and my cat has her own little boundaries of where she will wander to by herself on the canal path.
I go for a daily walk down the canal and sometimes she sits and meets me about five mins away from home (when I’m on my way back) and then she joins me for the last five mins of the walk and then we go inside together. This to me is totally normal because I know it’s an area she roams in comfortably by herself anyway, but anyone we pass may find it weird to see me and my black cat walking along the canal path side by side having a chat!

Titus the grey cat used to join us on the walk up the tram track to the woods, wait for us, then he walked back with us. He hid in the bushes and kept himself safe.

Forget the cat. You had an off leash dog , who likes chasing squirrels and small animals , not under your immediate control in a Nature Reserve???!!!! That is grossly unreasonable.

I like the way you think 😁

If the cat just jumped straight into her owners arms I'm not sure why you think they needed anything to "contain" her. Sounds like your dog was the problem here, not the cat.

@EraOfTheGrey
I have. Next door's dog caught my cat - in our front garden - and fractured her spine. I was in the garden, turned round and saw it happen. I don't think it's particularly unusual.

I've never seen a dog catch a cat but maybe I just live in an area of incompetent dogs.

Your dog should have been on a lead if it has rubbish recall.

My poor dog - she 13 years old - was attacked by a cat a while ago while walking in a park we often go to.

We were walking along minding our own business, when a beautiful small grey cat - my dog is small but bigger than the cat - ran at my dog and started hitting her.

I told dog to keep walking but unfortunately the cat wasn't having that and just kept following us and hitting at my dog.

The cat was getting more aggressive as we walked and the dog was beginning to get distressed so I put the dog back on the lead and tried to walk her out of the situation.

The cat followed us for a little way and then got bored and stopped.

It was rather bizarre tbh as my dog had shown absolutely no interest in the cat.

That cat should definitely have been on a lead and under someone's control.

Fortunately, we've never seen it again

My friend has an MC that got hit by a car. The cat had a slightly grazed ear. The car had a big dent in it! (and before anyone chimes in, yes, my friend paid for the damage her cat's big head did to his bumper!)

My FIL's cat used to go for a walk with him and the dog. He'd get bored half way round though and take himself back home.

Deliberately taking your own cat out for a walk to a place that there will be dogs is crazy IMO (and I have two cats!)

Well that's great. What a fun game. Unfortunately your dogs are not all the dogs. It's a pretty small sample size when you think about it properly.

I've had dogs all my life and in that time not one dog has managed to 'catch' a cat or a squirrel. A cat can so easily escape a dog and I see it as a life long game between cats and dogs.

The op's dog wasn't in 'open countryside' she said it was around 400m from the nearest house's, so a patch of open land in urban area, where cats and people live, not to mention also a nature reserve. That is definitely not the place for an untrained dog to be of lead.

How would the cat being on a lead have changed this? I'm really confused by what you're actually expecting here - a cat on a lead could equally jump into their owner's arms and a lead would limit the mobility of a cat who wished to jump up a tree.
Surely the only lead that could have had an impact here would be if there was one on the dog doing the chasing?

But your dogs weren't 'contained' either. The cat didn't chase your dog and distress it.

I can't believe what I'm reading. People actually think that a dog should be put back on the lead if a cat appears in the field. That is ridiculous. I have 2 dogs and they both have a love hate relationship with cats. They run up to the cats that they know but always stop short because in the end they know the cat is far superior to them.