It was over in a flash.
A big dog burst through the screen door of a parked RV, dragged out a cat, and mauled it.
Thomas Yerosic is a renovations contractor in Chilliwack, who lives in a motor home, with his seven cats.
Now he has six.
Yerosic says he is utterly devastated by the traumatic incident that happened when he was working on Elk View Road.
He was only gone five minutes. His cats were nearby in the RV where the main door was open to let in air through the screen door.
“I heard some loud barking and yelping,” Yerosic said.
Two large dogs, like black labs, and one yellow one, had surrounded the cat. They all had shock collars on.
He thought the dogs had cornered a rabbit.
But it was his sweet little cat, Katie. She had been severely mauled, and had puncture wounds all over her belly.
“I don’t think people realize how traumatic and disturbing this can be,” Yerosic told The Progress.
He rushed his cat to the vet after it happened. But it was too late.
“She was dead on arrival,” he said.
“I cried and cried. There was nothing I could do to save her.”
He says he could understand dogs taking a wild rabbit, maybe.
“But to break into a motor home through the screen and kill a pet cat, are you kidding me? It was the most disturbing thing I ever saw.
“These dogs were killers. It could happen again.”
Yerosic is a dedicated animal lover, who has rescued many cats. He’s spent almost $60,000 on vet bills for animals in the past 15 plus years.
“My cats are like my family.”
He called CARE Centre run by FVRD for animal control, and staff were surprised to hear that the dogs broke in.
The CARE Centre now has an “open investigation” in the wake of the report about three at-large dogs and the death of a cat.
“At this time, the dogs have not been identified and their whereabouts are unknown,” said FVRD spokesperson Jennifer Kinneman.
“Animal control officers have been conducting regular patrols of the area, and have done some door to door canvassing in an effort to identify the offending dogs.
The mauling took place at a spot near a popular hiking trail.
“The CARE Centre will continue to work toward locating these animals and complete the investigation,” she added.
Staff snapped pictures of the damaged door and floor of his motor home.
Yerosic said he was asked to provide a list of suspected properties the dogs may have gotten lose from.
“I had a list of three,” he said.
He wants to find out who the owners are, with an eye to taking them to court over the tragic and needless death of his cat.
He has some advice for RV owners: Never leave the door open with just the screen door as protection for your family pets.
“People need to be aware this happened.”
@CHWKjourno
jfeinberg@theprogress.com
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