diff --git a/utils/watchcat/files/initd_watchcat b/utils/watchcat/files/initd_watchcat
index d6f954e9e5..2131860634 100644
--- a/utils/watchcat/files/initd_watchcat
+++ b/utils/watchcat/files/initd_watchcat
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ stop() {
 
 		while read pid
 		do
-			kill "$pid"
+			kill -KILL "$pid"
 		done < "${PIDFILE}.pids"
 
 		rm "${PIDFILE}.pids"