Get 'wolf dogs' out of Lybster say residents
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
MORE than 200 Lybster residents have been so shocked by the recent violent deaths of two pet cats that they have put their names to a petition calling for the suspect dogs to be removed from the village.
![Pete Hodgson and Jo Ings own the dogs known locally as ‘wolves’ [not the dog in picture]](/_media/img/CZMR674A17KOST6VH6N2.jpg)
Police Scotland confirmed it was “made aware of harm being caused to cats by two dogs” in the Lybster area on the morning of Sunday, March 31 and a dog control notice was subsequently served to the owners of the animals, Pete Hodgson and Jo Ings, by Highland Council.
“I’m really angry about this. Someone came around that Sunday morning and told me my cat was lying dead in the neighbour’s garden,” said Mandy Robertson who lost her cat, Blackie.
“Does it take a child to be attacked before something is done?” said the mother-of-two who lives in Mowat Place with her husband. She claims that she “tackled” Mr Hodgson about the death of her cat.
“I wasn’t very nice about it as you can imagine and he didn’t really say much. He asked me the colour of my cat and then said his dogs had gone to Wick. That doesn’t even make sense saying something like that.”
She further claimed that Mr Hodgson failed to apologise about the death of her cat and seemed to shy away from taking any responsibility.
“He just didn’t seem to care that we’d just lost our cat.”
Mrs Robertson took her cat to the vet who confirmed that Blackie’s neck was broken. “The dogs are like wolves. That’s what everyone round here calls them what with their size and colouring.”
Mrs Robertson and her husband have put their names to a petition that has amassed over 200 signatures and aims to see the village rid of the so-called “wolf dogs”.
The petition reads: “On March the 31st two much loved family pets were found dead having been attacked by two large aggressive dogs that live in the village of Lybster.”
It then goes on to ask people to sign in order “to get these dogs removed from the village and make it a safer place for people and pets, especially children. “
Retired nurse Cecilia Robertson [not related to Mandy] started the petition after her cat was also killed during the Sunday morning attack. She intends to take the completed written and online petitions to local councillor Willie Mackay.
“The first I knew about it was when Pete came to my door and said my cat had got into his garden, scratched his dog’s nose and the dog then killed it.” Ms Robertson said she didn’t believe the explanation from the outset as her cat, Scraich, was “getting on in years” and had “limited mobility”.
Mr Hodgson had come to her door with the dead cat in a bag she claims.
“There’s no way that Scraich died over there in his garden. I even saw fur lying in my garden where he’d obviously been attacked.
“A neighbour had also seen the dog in my garden and the body [of Scraich] on the ground at the same time. He called the police who came down and took statements from everyone.”
Ms Robertson said that the police then had to come back to Lybster again, “all the way from Wick”, when the other cat’s death was discovered.
“The police did their best but could only go so far with things as cats are legally considered as property. “ She claims that the council did issue the dog’s owner with an Asbo order to keep it under control.
In July 2018 a border collie was allegedly attacked by two dogs owned by Mr Hodgson and Ms Ings. Those dogs were removed from the couple along with two others. Mr Hodgson said he has “made every effort” to keep his dogs within his property and even put up high fencing around his back garden.
He said: “There are plenty of other large breed dogs wandering around here and they blame ours. People point their fingers at us and we’ve been threatened numerous times.
“Witnesses against us have been proven to be unreliable in the past. It’s so bad we feel we’re developing a siege mentality.”
Mr Hodgson said he has been targeted on several occasions and had valuable items stolen from his garden shed.
“This is the third petition to have the wolf dogs taken from us. They’re a Malamute-Saarloos cross and look like a European grey wolf.”
Mr Hodgson feels his dogs are “natural scapegoats” and said he was suspicious about the death of one of the cats which seemed to have signs of rigor mortis setting in.
Wick and east Caithness councillor Willie Mackay said that "wolf dogs do not make good pets.
"Anything with a wolf breeding in it is too dangerous and vicious to be around people and children."
