Dog chasing cat - legal position of dog injures cat?

[FrenchFancie]

I’m really interested to know what other people think we should do, or if anyone knows the legal position with this?

we have two cats, one of which likes to sun himself in our front garden near the hedge - he’s quite an old boy now! He’s definitely in our garden.

next door has a small yappy terrier type dog that hates cats, and ous especially. We moved in about a year ago and every time this dog sees our cats he goes potty. Normally he’s contained within their garden but he’s recently learned how to get out. Over the last 4 days each day our neighbours dog has escaped, run into our front garden and then chased our old cat out of the garden and down the road. Today dog cornered cat against someone’s garage before the owner managed to catch him - cat lashed out with claws, dog doesn’t appear to care.

i don’t want to fall out with the neighbour but I’m getting a bit fed up of this. Due to the layout of our drive / front garden we can’t really keep their dog out if it escapes from their garden. I’m also worried that one or both of the pets are going to get hurt - either the dog biting the cat or the dog and / or the cat getting run over as they run down the road.

Does anyone know if the neighbour has to do more to keep the dog in the garden? Are we liable if our cat scratches his dog in self defence? Would he have to pay or vet bills if something happens to the cat?

i really don’t want to fall out with our otherwise lovely neighbour - but I am getting quite worried for our old cat - he’s getting quite old now and just wants peace in the sun in his own garden!

I'm really not sure where the law stands on dogs/cats, and what would happen there. But isn't the general consensus that dogs should be kept under control, so on leads, or in your total control ( ie great recall), or safely secured somewhere. I would say it's your neighbours responsibility to ensure their dog is kept securely. If they are indeed lovely, surely you can have a nice chat with them and explain your fears? See what their plans are re securing the garden?

Dogs should be under control, they need to secure their garden so he can't get out. It's not you or your cat's fault that he's getting out, what if a toddler holding a string of sausages happened to walk by. Or any other example. If the dog wants to get out he clearly can, so they need to make their garden dog safe.

Cats have some kind of right to roam so they can't stop your cats winding up their dog.

A colleague years ago had a cat enter their garden and her pit bull killed it. No legal repercussions.

It's one of the many reasons my cat is an indoor cat.