A selection of cat attack headlines on stuff.co.nz, 28 Sep 2018

We rarely post on this blog about cases of cruelty to cats – either the reports we see in the news or the stories told to us personally by people who have had their cat threatened, injured or killed.

There are a lot of these cases in New Zealand, and we don’t want to turn the blog into a weekly “crime report.”

But we believe that cat owners need to know that allowing their pets to roam freely makes them vulnerable to assault.

So, once in a while, we mention one of these cases as a reminder to all cat owners, that one of the best things you can do for your cat is to keep it safe, by keeping it at home.

Last weekend, an 11-year-old free-roaming cat in Christchurch was shot in the leg. With a gun. In the city, for goodness sake. This was a family pet, who has now had her leg amputated.

She is lucky that this was a non-lethal wound. The next cat might not be.

There are, after all, people who take offence when a roaming cat wanders through their garden. And there are other who simply seem to enjoy hurting animals.

» Read the story on stuff.co.nz

28 Sept 2018

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Ginge the kitten had his leg chopped off while roaming Parnell.

We hate having to repost stories like this, but cat owners need to know that there are some very vicious people out there.

This story is not as unusual as we might like to think. People use illegal gin traps to maim or kill roaming kittens, even in an upmarket suburb of New Zealand’s biggest city.

To keep your cat safe from dogs, other cats, and the occasional depraved human, please consider keeping your cat on your own property.

[9 Oct 2017]

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Two cats shot in northwest Auckland

An Auckland woman is “terrified” to let her cats outside after one was shot in the leg – causing its limb to be amputated.

Lee Attwell’s five-month-old tabby Sadie had her leg removed after she was shot by a .22 calibre bullet.

Sadie came rushing and screaming into her Kumeu home about 2.30pm on September 8. The kitten ran into a bedroom and hid under the bed, Attwell said.

Read the rest of the story at stuff.co.nz

[17 Sep 2017]

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It’s great to see that Zep, the cat shot with an arrow a few days ago, seems to be recovering (see video).

But the North Taranaki SPCA says another cat was shot with a rifle in the same area about a week ago, and died. It is not known whether the two attacks on cats are related.

The story is on stuff.co.nz

The post Another cat shot in Inglewood appeared first on CATFENCE.

A cat belonging to a family in the Taranaki town of Inglewood struggled home with an arrow through the top of its head. The vet reckons the arrow may have been there a day and a half.

According to stuff.co.nz:

North Taranaki SPCA spokeswoman Jackie Poles Smith said the animal was hit and left injured, which is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act. Penalties include up to $75,000 in fines and/or three years in prison.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for anyone to get a sentence like that for ‘merely’ attempting to kill someone’s pet.

Please think twice before deciding to let your cat roam off your property.

The post Roaming cat shot in the head appeared first on CATFENCE.

This case was in the Canadian city of Regina – although we’ve certainly had similar occurrences here in New Zealand recently.

Something else that caught my attention, however, was that Regina has a bylaw against roaming cats, and the fine for a first offence is C$100, or about NZ$130.

“It’s far safer and far healthier for [pets] to stay inside,” says Bill Thorn, director of marketing for the Regina Humane Society. “The dangers outside and the things they can run into far outweigh any negatives of them staying inside.”

The cat owner in this story is quoted as saying she knew about the bylaw, but she still let her cat roam the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the poor cat is paying the price for her actions.

The post $100 fine for roaming cats appeared first on CATFENCE.

More than 100 people have liked their Facebook page, and the group has put fliers in neighbourhoods across Melbourne, threatening to trap or shoot any cats that roam.

If you have the stomach for it, you can read the story on the Herald Sun website. Surprisingly, the story says the RSPCA declined to comment.

15 July 2016

The post Australian group kills roaming cats appeared first on CATFENCE.

In Hamilton, a roaming cat was shot between the eyes with a nail gun but – miraculously – survived and is in the care of the Waikato SPCA.

Even if you believe your cat is entitled to roam – that doesn’t guarantee that they can do so safely.

14 July 2016

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From today’s Taranaki Daily News:

A kitten believed to have been caught in a gin trap crawled home and left a pool of blood outside its two-year-old owner’s bedroom.

Just after midnight on Saturday, New Plymouth woman Kate Carrington was woken up by the sound of her son’s kitten Bear.

The cat is believed to have been caught in a gin trap, before getting itself out and making its way back home with serious injuries to two of its legs.

“I just saw her lying there and she was trying to clean her front paw because it was quite badly mangled as well,” Kate said.

More…

8 July 2016

The post Kitten loses leg to suspected illegal trap appeared first on CATFENCE.

Jazz the cat came home with a leg-hold trap attached to her lower jaw.

Barely a month after hearing about a Palmerston North man convicted of catching his neighbour’s cat in a leg-hold trap, we have this from today’s Hawke’s Bay Today:

…cats get a bad rap, despite the fact they don’t bark incessantly and lay waste anywhere they like.

They do wander, and it is clear there are people out there who do not tolerate that attribute in the slightest. They lay traps.

As the local SPCA crew described that approach in the wake of a cat in the Taradale area being snared in a leg trap this week, it is extreme.

For this trap was clearly a suburban-based thing – not a snare to prevent possums and feral cats from pursuing native birds in reserves.

More…

4 June 2016

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