On the street where you live

Sometimes, it seems like animal abusers are everywhere: from football player Michael Vick’s Atlanta dog fighting ring, to two North Baton Rouge thugs who laughed as their pitbull devoured a kitten. Despite the constant barrage of sad stories, animal lovers and rescuers are somewhat buoyed by the knowledge that most people—especially those they know—would never intentionally harm an animal.

I was.

Until last week.

In the past few months, our neighborhood has become home to a feral cat colony. Fortunately, our resident Cat Haven board members proactively coordinated the trapping, spay/neuter and release 11 of the 17 cats to halt their procreation. The homeowner of the colony’s headquarters and several other neighbors even contributed to the vet bills.

Last Tuesday, as my husband and I took our dogs on an evening walk, an injured tuxedo cat dragged herself from the bushes to the curb. The colony cat appeared to have been hit by a car, a hazard for any free-roaming animal.

No matter the cause of the injury, the animal needed help. Despite the cat’s defensive growling and the risk of being bitten or clawed, my Cat Haven friend maneuvered the injured critter into a cat carrier. We headed to the only vet clinic open, the Baton Rouge Pet Emergency Hospital.

If the staff were able to examine the animal at all (ferals are not the friendliest of patients), I had expected the medical report to include a fractured pelvis or spine with a dismal prognosis. Instead, the clinic’s vet reported some neurologic response in the cat’s back legs and tail. The major problem was a chest injury, including a popped lung. The cat might survive with expensive surgery, but post-operative care for ferals is nearly impossible. So, an otherwise healthy young cat was humanely euthanized.

That was certainly tragic enough.

But, once she was sedated, the mechanism of injury became clear: The beautiful black-and-white kitty had been shot with a pellet gun. The bullet entered near the chest and lodged below the spine.

Who—in our subdivision—would shoot a cat? We live in a “nice” neighborhood filled with kids, pets and highly-educated professionals, the majority of whom knew about Cat Haven’s efforts to control the colony.

Granted, some people see cats as moving sculpture; others see them as nothing more than a nuisance. Either way, shooing a cat from the yard is fine; shooting a cat (or dog) is aggravated animal cruelty and a felony. Furthermore, it’s illegal to fire a gun in a residential neighborhood.

The same week, the Thibodaux Police Department arrested a 54-year-old man in the fatal shooting of a kitten under much the same circumstances. While our neighbors have suspicions about the local abuser’s identity, it’s difficult to prove. If anything positive has come of the experience, it’s the outrage and disgust neighbors have expressed about the incident.

The proof of animal cruelty has now placed a pall over our little South Baton Rouge community, as residents confront the reality that someone who lives so close could do something so heinous.

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