Stray Dogs Wrecked a Car After a Kick? The Viral Photos Explained

Originally published 2018-02-07. Events, ages and announcements in this article refer to February 2018.

A set of photos that has circulated since 2015 shows three stray dogs biting into the front wing and windscreen wipers of a red saloon car parked outside an apartment block. The caption that travels with them says the driver had kicked one of the dogs out of his parking space, and that the dog came back with friends to get even.

The photos are real enough, and dogs damaging parked cars is a well-documented problem in many countries. The revenge part is harder to pin down. Here is what the original reports actually said, what the pictures show, and what is more likely to be going on when dogs attack a car.

The best-known frame: a pale stray bites at the front wheel arch of the red car while a smaller ginger dog stands by the bonnet.

Where the story came from

The account appeared in English-language media in March 2015. KTVU FOX 2 in San Francisco, citing the Daily Mail, reported that the incident happened in China, without naming a city. According to that version, a stray had been lying in a man's parking spot, he kicked it to make it move, and the following morning he found his car dented and scratched.

A neighbour is said to have photographed the dogs at work and told the owner which animals were responsible. Three dogs were involved: one bit the bodywork hard enough to leave large dents, while another climbed onto the bonnet and pulled at the wipers. KTVU did not verify the story independently, and no named owner, location or police record has surfaced since. The kick, in other words, comes from the driver's side of the story as retold by newspapers.

Two dogs work on the same wing while a third rests on the bonnet. The dent behind the headlight is visible even at this distance.

Can dogs really take revenge?

Dogs learn quickly who is safe and who is not. A dog that has been hit may avoid that person, bark at them or, sometimes, become defensive near them. What science does not support is the idea of a dog drawing up a plan, recruiting a pack and choosing a target object to punish its owner. That is a human reading of behaviour that usually has simpler causes.

A similar case in Sakarya, Turkey, in 2016 shows how quickly people reach for the revenge explanation. Surveillance footage showed strays chewing the bumper of a car owned by Cem Acar, leaving almost 5,000 Turkish lira in repairs. A local veterinary chamber chair, Mustafa Yıldız, floated revenge as one possibility, but he also suggested the dogs might simply have been drawn by the smell of meat. Acar himself first thought the dogs were chasing a cat hiding under the car.

A close view of the pale dog pulling at the metal near the wheel. Stray dogs often target plastic bumpers and trim, which give way more easily than steel.

Why dogs chew on parked cars

Several ordinary explanations fit what the photos show. Car tyres and wheels are among the most heavily scent-marked objects in a street: rubber holds odours well, and passing dogs urinate on tyres to leave a message for other dogs. A car that has been parked somewhere new, or that carries the smell of another animal, can attract a lot of attention.

Cats are another common trigger. Cats shelter under parked cars and in wheel arches, especially in cold weather. In Houston in late 2023, two dogs that got into a used-car lot tore bumpers off vehicles and caused an estimated $350,000 in damage; staff believed the dogs were after stray cats hiding beneath the cars. Food smells, nesting rodents and simple pack excitement can all play a part too.

None of this rules out that the Chinese dogs had a grudge. It just means the photos fit the common explanations as well as they fit a revenge plot.

Taken from inside another car, this frame shows the wider scene: three dogs around the red car on a paved parking strip below a residential block.

What drivers and residents can actually do

If dogs keep damaging cars where you live, contact the local animal-control service or a rescue group that runs neutering and rehoming programmes; managing the population is what makes the problem go away. Avoid leaving food waste near parked vehicles, check wheel arches for sheltering cats in winter, and if surveillance footage exists, keep it, because insurers will usually ask for it.

And the simplest lesson from the viral version still stands: kicking a dog solves nothing. It can make a frightened animal defensive, it is cruel, and in many countries it is also an offence.

The pale dog presses its head against the front wing again. The bodywork damage, rather than the motive, is the part of the story that the photos can confirm.

Another dog, another bumper

The clip below shows a dog biting at the bumper of a police car. Like the photos above, it is a reminder that a determined dog can do real damage to the plastic parts of a vehicle, whatever its reasons.

Sources: KTVU FOX 2: Stray dog kicked by driver returns with friends to trash his car (March 2015); Hürriyet Daily News: Reason for attack by stray dogs may be revenge, vet says (October 2016); NBC DFW: Stray dogs cause an estimated $350K in damage to cars at a Houston dealership (January 2024); Dogster: Why do dogs pee on tires?.