Buddy Is Mauled Nearly to Death on His Own Porch by Vicious Dogs Deliberately Sicced on Him by a Pair of Vile Black Kids in Philadelphia

The Youths and Their Dogs Size Up Buddy for the Kill

His former family "did wonderfully by him." However, "if Buddy does recover, he will not return to his home but will be in search of a new one."
-- Gilliam Kocher of the Pennsylvania SPCA

On the morning of March 22nd, a handsome six- to seven-year-old black cat named Buddy was waiting patiently and peacefully for his Frühstück on the front porch of a row house on the 1600 block of Granite Street in the Frankford section of northeast Philadelphia. Apparently having been cruelly abandoned years earlier by his original owners, he was being cared for by the occupants of the house who had sterilized him but had not been able to successfully transform him into an indoor cat.

It did not take long, however, on that god-awful morning for the consequences of their failure to have gotten him off of the mean streets of violent Philadelphia to manifest themselves in tragic fashion. All that it took was the arrival upon the scene of a pair of black hoodlums from the neighborhood and their vicious dogs.

Upon spying the defenseless Buddy on the porch, the goons immediately threw down their dogs' leashes and sicced them on him. As their killer canines tore into him they can be overheard on a surveillance tape egging them on with shouts of "git 'im!" and "good boy!"

Caught completely off-guard by the unprovoked attack and with his back pinned up against the wall and all of his avenues of escape closed off, Buddy did not have so much as a tree to climb in order to save himself. Seizing the golden opportunity presented to them, the dogs wasted no time in savaging him from his head to his toes with their razor-sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

By this time only a few seconds had ticked off the clock but it nevertheless sure looked like it was the end of the line for long-suffering Buddy. He probably did not have time to even think about what was happening to him but he surely must have been frightened out of his mind and instinctively realized that he was in grave danger of perishing. Whether the victim be a cat, another dog, or a human being, few people fully appreciate just how quickly even one dog, let alone two of them, can kill.

Mercifully, Buddy's unidentified caretaker was equally quick on his feet. Aroused by the commotion being churned up outside his front door, the white man raced outside in his bare feet and somehow pulled the dogs off of his cat.
 
Given that in Philadelphia it is nothing out of the ordinary for up to ten people to be shot every day of the week, the man easily could have been either pumped full of lead or mauled to death by the canines. He did not have the leisure of taking those trepidations into consideration but instead magnanimously thought only about saving Buddy.

Fortunately for him, the lads either were not armed or, if so, chose not to turn their weapons on him. Realizing that their sick, sadistic fun was at an end, they apparently complied with his directive that they remove themselves and their dogs from his porch. In a nation where blowhards, shekel chasers, and killers are the norm, he is a real man and a genuine hero in spades!

 The Perpetrators Were Caught on Camera but They Will Not Be Punished

The chain of events that followed is far from clear but as best that the narrative can be pieced together, members of the Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT) of 111 West Hunting Park Avenue were notified and they came and collected the critically injured cat and took him to the Pennsylvania SPCA (PSPCA) at 350 East Erie Avenue, both addresses being in north Philadelphia. Whereas it is believed that he received some treatment there, Buddy ultimately wound up at the BluePearl Pet Hospital at 1114 South Front Street in Center City.

Regardless of his final destination, he was administered painkillers and antibiotics upon arrival, placed on intravenous fluids, hooked up to a monitor, and a good deal of fur was removed from his lacerated neck, chest, abdomen, and four legs. Multiple puncture wounds to his abdomen were cleansed and sutured as well as numerous bite wounds to his head, tail, neck, and legs. The dogs did all of that extensive damage in just a few seconds of work.

Once the veterinarians had finished with him he looked like he had been run through an electric fan but, amazingly, he apparently had not suffered any wounds to his vital organs, internal bleeding, or broken bones. The slipshod, uncaring, disinterested, and always out of touch Philadelphia media have not broached the subject but it would appear that Buddy's claws were insufficient in order to have slowed down the dogs, unless he previously had been divested of them.

As things eventually turned out, it was not until more than forty-eight hours later on March 24th that the PSPCA was able to finally inform the public that he was going to live. "Though he be but little, he is fierce," it announced on Facebook. "He remains in critical condition, but we are cautiously optimistic."

That certainly was a welcomed turn of events but even then he had survived by the narrowest of margins. For instance, if his caretaker had been as little as one or two seconds later in intervening he likely would not be alive today.

After stabilizing Buddy's condition, the PSPCA turned its attention toward the apprehension of the boys responsible for nearly killing him. "This act of cruelty is especially heinous for its apparent intentional nature," the charity's Julie Klim told the Philly Voice on March 22nd. (See "Video Shows Two People Encouraging Dogs to Attack Cat Sitting on Porch of Frankford Home.") "An innocent animal simply sitting on a porch may lose its (sic) life for absolutely no reason. Animals are beloved members of our family, and should be treated as such."

Thanks to the surveillance tape, the perpetrators were soon identified and a seventeen-year-old juvenile surrendered to the PSPCA on March 25th and a twelve-year-old followed suit a day later. They were then promptly confined to a juvenile detention center but it is highly unlikely that they were there for very long.

They also were charged with felony animal fighting, aggravated felony animal cruelty, and conspiracy. Surprisingly, they were not charged with either trespassing, the destruction of private property, or criminal mischief.

Veterinary Personnel Worked to Save Buddy's Life

It really does not make any difference anyway because under Pennsylvania law they cannot be tried as adults. Even more revolting, it would not even matter if they were adults because in the Keystone State prosecutors seldom even bother to try animal cruelty cases and even when they do and are able to obtain convictions judges adamantly refuse to punish the guilty.

Consequently, all of the PSPCA's huffing and puffing, strutting and preening, jeers and crocodile tears were strictly for show. The youths certainly will not be punished and the PSPCA knows that as well as everyone else.

Even if Buddy had died on that porch, few individuals in Pennsylvania would have even cared. (See Cat Defender post of March 18, 2022 entitled "Two Drivers for the United States Postal Service Deliberately Run Over Four Cats in New Galilee but They Are Allowed to Escape Justice and to Keep Their Jobs.")

Why, only recently fifty-year-old Nikolay Lukyanchikov of Holly Knoll Drive in Northampton, one-hundred-eight kilometers northeast of the laughingly misnomered City of Brotherly Love, was given only two to four years in jail by lunatic Bucks County judge Raymond McHugh for killing his dog, Bonanza, and then burning his body. Every bit as deplorable, he had been given the long-abused canine only two months previously by the National Greyhound Adoption Program in Philadelphia which surely must have been aware that he was a longtime violent offender and a drunkard.

Prior to that, Bonanza had been forced to persevere through a lifetime of horrific abuse and naked exploitation at the Macau Canidrome Club which up until its closure in 2018 was regarded as the worst greyhound racetrack in the world. (See The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23, 2022, "The Bucks County Man Who Shot and Lit His Dog on Fire Was (sic) Sentenced to State Prison," The Mirror of London, July 15, 2020, "Greyhound Who Spent Most of Her Life in a Cage at Chinese Racetrack Rescued in (the) United Kingdom," and change. org, undated article entitled "Shut Down the Canidrome, the World's Deadliest Greyhound Racetrack.")

With punishment of the youths being totally out of the question, the PSPCA will reportedly ask the judge handling their case to ban them from all future contact with animals and to order them to undergo counseling. Considering that most psychologists believe that character is formed early in life, it is highly unlikely that the juveniles are going to ever see the error of their ways and accordingly develop any respect for cats no matter how much urging to the contrary that they receive.

In addition to that, the mother of the seventeen-year-old has refused to voluntarily give up the dogs. At last word the charity was still in possession of them with their disposition ultimately to be decided by either it or the judge handling the case.

"We will get to know these animals, we will learn more about them," Gilliam Kocher of the PSPCA pledged to WPVI-TV of Philadelphia on March 26th. (See "Twelve-Year Old, Seventeen-Year-Old Face Charges Following Vicious Attack on Buddy the Cat.")  "We absolutely do not want to put any unsafe animals out into the community, but we want to make our own determination on what should happen to them, based on the situations they were put in."

Her colleague Nicole Wilson, however, seems to be more concerned with saving the dogs than in protecting the lives of cats. "I think the key here, though, is to look at the video and to see that the dog (sic) didn't have an interest in going after the cat until the one individual directed the attention of the dogs," she testified to KYW 1060-AM of Philadelphia on March 29th. (See "Buddy the Cat Officially Upgraded to Stable Condition.") "Those dogs were walking past the cat, and so that suggests to me that with some behavior (sic) modification and the proper attention, and the proper individual handling the dog, that dog is safe to potentially rehome." 

 Buddy and Some of His Life-Threatening Injuries

Whereas the dogs should not be killed solely because their owners have failed to properly socialize and to control them, Wilson's dogma is not necessarily true. First of all, their apparent lack of any interest in Buddy could be attributable to their not having initially seen him.

Secondly, there cannot be any doubt whatsoever that the dogs are vicious and dangerous even though the PSPCA has not disclosed either how long the woman has owned them or for what purpose. The strong suspicion, however, is that they were being kept for the purpose of pitting them against other dogs in  the ring and that the boys looked upon Buddy as being nothing more than a gratuitous bait cat.

After all, it is axiomatic that anyone involved in any shape, form, or fashion with dogfighting is not about to have any regard whatsoever for cats. (See Cat Defender post of October 22, 2021 entitled "Condemned to Die as Dog Bait, Buzz Perseveres Just Long Enough Until He Is Somehow Able to Not Only Regain His Freedom but Also to Find His Pot of Gold at the Rainbow's End.")

Furthermore, witnessing dogs being ripped to shreds in the ring thrills such individuals every bit as much as watching them devour cats. Dogfighting also is immensely popular with some blacks in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association as well as with quite a few Hip-Hop artists and street gangs from New York to Los Angeles. (See Cat Defender post of October 31, 2021 entitled "The Arrest of a Dogfighter in Ayr Provides a Rare Glimpse into the Utterly Despicable Abuse that Bait Cats Are Subjected to but the Scottish SPCA Still Stubbornly Persists in Treating Them Like Expendable Nonentities.") 

Thirdly, it is beyond outrageous that the PSPCA should be so concerned about two killer canines that it is willing to invest so much time, money, effort, and legal expertise in order to save them while it and other rescue groups and shelters are at the same time slaughtering millions of peace-loving cats each year without so much as a second thought and simply because they do not have owners. The ugly truth of the matter is that shelters, rescue groups, veterinarians, pet stores, and seemingly all other institutions and professionals involved with pets routinely shortchange cats and their owners in favor of dogs.

This anti-cat bias is most observable in the case of conflagrations whereby operators and staffers at these facilities unfailingly always rescue just about all of their canine inmates but think absolutely nothing of abandoning their feline residents to be burned alive. They quite obviously favor dogs over cats but they also have another overpowering incentive and that is money in that they are able to sell their canines back to the public for twice what they can get for their cats. Therefore, behind all their public posturing lurks some of the world's worst bloodsucking capitalists. 

Even in Buddy's case, his care most definitely was not paid for by the PSPCA but rather by the general public in the form of voluntary contributions. In fact, so much money flowed in from cat-lovers in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States that a surplus has been created.

For whatever it is worth, the PSPCA has pledged to use those funds in order to treat abused cats as well as to prosecute their attackers. While there certainly is not anything wrong with doing things that way, it does not in any way absolve the charity from making a full and complete accounting to its donors as to how that money ultimately is spent.

In particular, none of it should go into the pockets of staffers in the form of pay increases and job perks. Above all, unless every last red cent of it is spent on cats the PSPCA should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for fraud.

Nikolay Lukyanchikov Shot and Killed a Greyhound Named Bonanza

As for Buddy, his recovery from knocking on death's door has been nothing short of miraculous. "...he's doing wonderfully and we are so very happy that he made it to this chapter of his journey," the PSPCA proclaimed April 1st on Facebook.

"He is still taking some medications as he continues his recovery, but for the most part he's completely on the mend," Kocher added to Newsweek on April 6th. (See "Watch Buddy the Cat Loving Life and on the Road to Recovery after Dog (sic) Mauling.") 

Nothing good ever lasts for long in this miserable old world and behind even the sunniest and brightest of days dark storm clouds are always brewing and that, too, is the case with noble Buddy. In particular, he was placed in foster care on April 1st and although that normally is not a bad thing in itself, on this occasion the PSPCA has utilized that guise in order to sell him down the river.

It has done so by fobbing off his continued care on an unidentified couple, one of whom works as a veterinarian at BluePearl. The specifics have not been publicly spelled out, but it is entirely conceivable that the veterinary chain could have forgiven a portion of the PSPCA's bill in exchange for being given custody of Buddy.

The skids therefore already have been greased for the couple to adopt him and to transform him into an exclusively indoor cat. "He is adjusting wonderfully to indoor life, playing and lounging," Kocher gushed to Newsweek. "His foster parents are so in love with him."

Typical of the manipulative, dishonest, and selfish mind-set of all veterinary school graduates, the couple already has begun the process of molding him to their will regardless of either what he wants or what is best for him. "Big news coming out of Buddy's foster home today -- he 'met' his potential sibling (sic)," the charity heralded April 6th on Facebook. "As he continues to recover, and the possibility of him staying in his foster home furrever (sic) gets more real, his foster parents are working on slow introductions."

In the video that accompanies that post, Buddy can be seen eating in one area of the couple's abode while off to his side a diminutive brown cat identified as Teddy is watching him from a distance of several feet. C'est-à-dire, Teddy is being groomed to keep Buddy company while his youthful guardians are spending the lion's share of their time chasing shekels, social climbing, and partying.

Quite obviously, neither of them know the first thing about caring for a previously, long-term homeless cat and even if they did it would not make any difference to them because they are unwilling to devote the time and care that Buddy is going to require. As far as the PSPCA is concerned, it cannot wash its hands of him fast enough. Besides, every other breath that its protagonists take is about money and certainly not the welfare of their cats.

"He and his sibling (sic), Teddy, are getting along great," the PSPCA declared April 13th on both its Facebook and Twitter accounts. In a disquieting video that accompanies that posting, Buddy can be seen kneading a blanket while being incessantly pawed as if he were a steak being tenderized for the pan by a figure off-camera. 

Buddy Was Placed in an Elizabethan Collar to Expedite His Healing

He still appears to be extremely weak, unsteady on his feet and, perhaps, dopey from all the drugs that have been pumped into him. His fur likewise has not made very much in the way of progress in growing back.

It is difficult to gauge his overall health from the video but it does appear that he has quite a long way to go before he returns anything remotely like his old self. He therefore may be able to tolerate being locked up inside and left alone with Teddy during the day for a while but once he regains his strength and health he, more than likely, is going to quickly tire of "playing and lounging" indoors and to demand to be let out.

Furthermore, once he starts meowing all the time, pulling down the drapes, and scratching at the door in futile attempts to get outside, his new owners likely are going to respond by either caging him or confining him in their bathroom and that is going to only serve to exacerbate an already deplorable situation. Anyone who ever has dealt with outdoor cats knows that petit fait only too well. By contrast, it is only meatheads from the veterinary schools and groups like the PSPCA who fervently believe that cats were put on this earth in order to be pushed around and manipulated for the convenience of their owners and others.

Since Buddy already has been sterilized, the couple can forget about that expedient. Besides, it seldom works anyway given that cats roam for reasons other than having a good time frolicking in the leaves.

Most inexcusably of all, both the PSPCA and the couple are deliberately ignoring the testimony of his former caretakers on Granite Street who have stated that he "didn't want to live inside." As Georg Wilheim Friedrich Hegel once opined, "history leads the wise man and drags the fool."

Not only that but it is reprehensible how shabbily that the PSPCA has treated his former owners after they had footed the bill for his sterilization, watered and fed him and, above all, the man had risked his life in order to save him. They "did wonderfully by him," Kocher conceded to WPVI-TV in the March 25th article cited supra. 

Good works,  quite obviously, count for absolutely nothing with her because no sooner had that bit of effusive praise escaped from her lips than she turned right around and did an abrupt about-face. "If Buddy does recover, he will not return to his home, but will be in search of a new one."

As it only recently was disclosed April 9th on the PSPCA's Facebook page by a member of the public, the charity initially had refused to treat Buddy until the couple had agreed to surrender custody of him to it. Presumably, the charity was prepared to have let him die if they had not complied with its strong-armed ultimatum.

As for the man and his wife, they reportedly were either unable or unwilling to have paid for Buddy's treatment. That possibly could be true but it does not sound right given that they had paid for his sterilization and the man had risked his own life in order to have saved him from the dogs. Even if they were temporarily low on dough, there is such a thing as credit and paying on time and the PSPCA should have offered them that option.

Buddy Finally Was Able to Grab a Few Winks

The point should be moot in that all veterinary care, but especially emergency services, should be free to all injured and sick animals regardless of their owners' ability to pay. Philadelphians do not believe in anything of that sort, however. (See Cat Defender post of March 19, 2014 entitled "The Cheap and Greedy Moral Degenerates at PennVet Extend Their Warmest Christmas Greetings to an Impecunious, but Preeminently Treatable, Cat Via a Jab of Sodium Pentobarbital.")

Although both social as well as the capitalistic media have made the PSPCA out to be something of a hero, nothing could be further from the truth. Au contraire, it is a thoroughly reprehensible outfit that was more than willing to have let Buddy die, it stole him from his owners, and now it has fobbed off custody of him onto a pair of individuals who appear to be totally unsuitable and unwilling to properly care for him. 

Generally speaking, very few rescue groups operate on the level and that assessment is even truer in regard to the veterinary medical profession. What they both share in common, however, is an long and abiding love of an easy buck, an over reliance upon gangster tactics, and a total unwillingness to ever tell the unvarnished truth about anything.

Worst of all, they do not give so much as a non gratum anus rodentum about the welfare and happiness of the cats that they are supposed to be helping. All things considered, animal rescue groups and veterinarians should be avoided like the plague if it is at all possible. Both professions are outrageous rackets!

Admittedly, it would not be wise to return Buddy to the mean and violent streets of Philadelphia but perhaps the Granite Street couple would have been willing to have relocated elsewhere and in the process to have taken him along with them. At the very least, they deserved to have been offered that alternative.

It additionally would be interesting to know if either the PSPCA or BluePearl allowed them to visit him while he was recovering. He undoubtedly would have found their familiar faces, voices, and words of encouragement comforting during his hour of greatest need. Thanks to the machinations of both the PSPCA and BluePearl, they likely never again will be able to lay eyes on him.

As for Frankford, it is congested with automobiles, trucks, and commuters using the nearby Frankford Transportation Center. In that light, it is a miracle that Buddy was not run down and killed by a motorist years ago. 

Secondly, drug supermarkets operate openly on some street corners and gun violence is every bit as common as the wind and the rain. (See KYW-TV of Philadelphia, April 7, 2022, "Gunman Dead after Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority Officer, Three Others Shot in Philadelphia's Frankford Section, Police Say" and WPVI-TV, February 19, 2022, "Police Investigate Triple Shooting in Philadelphia's Frankford Section.")

Thirdly, it is open season on cats and their owners all across Philadelphia but especially in the northern and western sections of the city. (See WPVI-TV, April 9, 2022, "Lucky to Be Alive: Three Kittens Rescued after Being Tied Up, Thrown in the Trash," WTXF-TV of Philadelphia, December 6, 2019, "Cat Dies after Being Found Shot with Arrow in West Philadelphia; Suspect Sought," and the Daily Mail, November 12, 2019, "What Was a Fourteen-Year-Old Girl Doing in His House? Friends of 'Animal Angel' Al Chernoff -- Who Was Found Tied Up and Naked with His Face Smashed In -- Share Their Shock at Cat Lover's Suspected Relationship with the Teen Arrested for His Murder.")

In a Harbinger of Things to Come, Buddy in a Cage with His Foster Parents

Fourthly, although they go largely unreported dog attacks upon cats, as Buddy found out to his horror, are all-too-common. Clearly, Philadelphia is anything but a safe place for cats.

What Buddy clearly needs is, first of all, to be taken out of violent and cat-hating Philadelphia. Secondly, he needs a large house in either a quiet suburban neighborhood or the countryside. It would be even better if he had a large, fenced-in garden with a net on top in which to play and a guardian who would be amenable to staying home with him every day.

Providing a cat with around-the-clock human companionship, attention, and supervision is the best way of keeping him at home but few individuals of today are willing to make that kind of a commitment. Although they may like having a cat to come home to in the evening, they usually are unwilling to spend any quality time with it. Consequently, other than feeding and watering it, its mere existence is largely an afterthought. 

As far as alternatives are concerned, the only thing that the PSPCA and the veterinary profession have to recommend is for owners to lock up their cats indoors like convicted felons and then to throw away the keys. In reality, keeping a cat both happy and safe is pretty much a full-time job and the PSPCA and others who claim differently are doing members of the species a disservice.

If a large, fenced-in garden in suburbia is not feasible, those who adopt cats such as Buddy may be left with no other alternative but to grant them a measure of their old freedom. Even then owners need to carefully weigh the cat's happiness against the dangers involved in doing so.

In the final analysis, cats must be allowed to be themselves and, above all, owners must learn to love them on their own terms. In that respect, the following advice offered by Frederick Salomon Perls in his Gestalt Prayer is, perhaps, even more applicable in caring for a cat than it is in getting along with a lover:

"I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,

And you are not in this world to live up to mine.

You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.

If not, it can't be helped."

Malheureusement, Buddy's fate appears to be sealed in that the PSPCA is determined to get rid of him as expeditiously and as economically as possible. That does nothing, however, to invalidate the observation that individuals and organizations that are so thoroughly incapable of taking into consideration any interests other than their own do not have any business lording it over and unjustly stealing and imprisoning other people's cats. 

Photos: WPVI-TV (prelude to the attack), Twitter (the suspects and Buddy sleeping), the PSPCA (Buddy on the operating table, his injuries, in an Elizabethan collar, and with his foster parents), and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office (Lukyanchikov).