Gulfport Residents Point to Wild Dogs for Cat Killing

“The dogs were right outside the bedroom window, the commotion woke us up,” Gulfport resident John Paul said.

Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday Feb. 2^nd, John Paul woke up to growling and barking outside his bedroom window on 45^th St. South. Paul went outside with a flashlight in hand. That’s when he spotted four dogs.

“They were wild dogs . . . one was a small dog. There were two dogs that were probably the size of a Border Collie. The biggest one was yellow colored, almost like a Labrador,” Paul said.

Paul’s flashlight scared them off. What he didn’t see until after the sun came up was 9-year-old Chippie. Paul says the dogs attacked and killed his neighbor’s cat.

When asked if the animals could have been coyotes, Paul said they were wild dogs, "if a coyote had killed the cat. It would have taken the cat to eat it.”  

Until this incident, he’d only seen feral or wild dogs once before. Feral dogs are defined as animals that were once domesticated and have returned to a wild state. Wild animals are non-domesticated and are often born in the wild.

Paul says this attack raises concerns.

“I understand if they are hunting in the (Clam) Bayou, and killing for food, that’s one thing. Now that they’ve come in a residential neighborhood and killed a domesticated cat . . . now small animals and people are all at risk.”

Chippie was an indoor/outdoor cat who lived two doors down with his owners Al and Cindy Davis. Chippie is described as a very sweet, docile cat,“The kind that went limp in your arms and purred and purred when you picked him up,” Cindy Davis said.

Because he wasn’t always happy indoors, the Davis’ said Chippie went outside once or twice a day for fresh air.

“He was a prime victim,” Al Davis said.

Al and Cindy miss Chippie and hope that awareness will prevent others from losing a pet. The couple has 11 other small animals.

Senior Animal Control Officer John Hohenstern with Pinellas County Animal Services says the public should be aware of the dogs’ presence at Clam Bayou. Hohenstern urges people not to feed the animals, not to leave food out and to report any serious or unusual incidents to the department or local police department.

Hohenstern said, as of Friday Feb. 4^th, they had not received any reports of a domesticated animal being killed by a feral or wild dog in or near Clam Bayou. He added that they have never received reports of any aggression from the dogs at Clam Bayou.

Other residents disagree. Gulfport resident Kurt Zuelsdorf has spent countless hours in the Bayou, kayaking on his own and offering guided tours with his business Kayak Nature Adventures. Zuelsdorf says in the past 7 years he’s been kayaking in the nature park, he has come face to face with feral or wild dogs eight to 10 times.

“There is nothing tame left in these dogs. If they’re out running in the park and you come across them, they’re nasty . . .  (A) lot of the encounters I’ve had, I was in the kayak.” Zuelsdorf said.

Zuelsdorf says current construction on the St. Petersburg side of Clam Bayou is causing the animals to move around. He says construction has turned their “habitat into a lake”.  He believes there are at least 5 dogs people should watch out for.

“They operate a lot like a pack of coyotes, they move quietly, they sneak along and grab whatever they can, when they can,” Zuelsdorf said.

According to Pinellas County Animal Services, current efforts include setting a trap at the nature park. Senior Animal Control Officer John Hohenstern says they set up a dog trap on Jan. 19^th and so far haven’t heard anything about the tactic.