Yep, stand in front of a 300 lb carnivore and wave your arms! Fence or no fence … kitty will attack.
Looks like they got exactly what they deserved.
When I was a child, some of hte older neighborhood booys used to love to taunt our German shepherd, who was kept on a chain. It drove Nicki (the dog) nuts. So one day my dad unhooked Nicki and attached him back with a small pieces of wire.
It was only a little while when these same jerks came by yelling at and stomping their feet at Nicki. On the very first lunge Nicki broke the wire and took after them. It was all butt holes and elbows with Nicki about half an inch from biting the seats of their pants off. He chased them a good 100 yards down the street and never did actually bite them. He came back looking very proud of himself and my dad and my brothers and I laughed for a ten minutes. They stopped teasing Nicki.