Animal owners should offer their unruly cats pet toys in order to curb their aggressive tendencies, it has been claimed.
Dr Michael Fox, a well-known vet and former vice president of The Humane Society of the United States, claimed that some cats can often have the same approach to their owners as they do their prey.
Responding to a reader's question about aggressive cats, Dr Fox advised them to attempt to shift their cat's focus on to a toy.
He wrote on the In Forum website: "I would advise a two-pronged behavioural-readjustment-therapy approach. Play hide-and-seek with Larky, and have her attack and kill a small stuffed toy on a string."
Dr Fox added that cat owners should grab their pets by the scruff of the neck and hold them down for a short period in order to reassert their dominance over their cat.
This is not a cruel or abusive approach, according to the vet, as a mother cat will carry a kitten via the scruff, resulting in it becoming "an instinctual trigger of passive submission".
