Kentucky Pet Owner Shares: How To Keep Your Pets Safe From Hawks After Her Cats Were Attacked [PHOTOS]
Hawks are beautiful but dangerous creatures to any small animal. Pet owners need to beware of the dangers of an attack and how to guard their four-legged friends.
EXPERIENCE WITH A HAWK ATTACK
Our family loves animals. We have two cats and two dogs. All our cats are inside/outside and love to enjoy the neighborhood when the weather allows. Cheddar especially enjoys going out because he is a former barn cat turned shelter cat turned city boy. So, he loves to hunt and roam around. Within a two-year span, both our babies came home about a month apart with injuries to their bodies. We didn't actually notice until they had gotten infected and swelled up. We called our vet and she came to examine them. She told us it looked like they had been attacked by something.
We thought it might be the other male cats in the neighborhood until our large kitty Cheddar came home with a horrible injury to his neck. It was so awful that his face swelled the size of a golf ball. We were actually gone on vacation when it happened and our housesitter sent us a photo.
HAWKS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
My husband, Joe, noticed a hawk, circling our cul-de-sac, and he watched where it would return to. We found out it lived in the tree on the hill above our house. Now the injuries made more sense. Our babies had become prey for this hawk and this just isn't something we were going to allow.
I contacted my friend, Nikki Christian, who is a Wildlife Rehabber for National Geographic. I asked first not knowing how to trap a hawk. She told me it is illegal to trap them but I can take measures to repel them.
Here is what she suggested;
- Purchase a great horned owl decoy or a bald eagle decoy
- Get a Bald Eagle Call.
- Reflective Tape or deterrent stand (the flashes of light and color scare the birds)
- Hawk Proof netting.
- Being present while they are outside.
- Spike coats.
MYTHS ABOUT HAWK ATTACKS
There are a lot of myths that go around about hawk attacks. The fact of the matter is hawks can't carry more than their own weight. However, they can do some pretty exstinsive damage to an animal if they try to pick it up or kill it. My cats are proof of this and it is an awful sight to see.
This poor yorkie was almost attacked by a Red-Tail Hawk. They are quite large and I haven't seen any that size around here in Owensboro.