PET ATTACK: Gun curb call after cat shot

Peterborough Today.com (UK) ^ | 8/11/05 | n/a

[kiriath_jearim]

PET ATTACK: Gun curb call after cat shot

A WOMAN whose beloved cat was shot with an air rifle has branded the perpetrators as "barbaric".

Helen Porter is now too afraid to let her other cats play outside her house in Mewburn, North Bretton, Peterborough, in case they are targeted by gun-wielding youngsters.

Miss Porter (24) was horrified to find her black cat, Jenny, crying in pain outside the back door, with blood running out of her back leg.

She quickly rushed the pet to an emergency out-of-hours vetinary service, just after the incident on Wednesday, August 3, at about 9.45pm.

Luckily, the vets at the city's Broadway clinic, saved Jenny's leg – but she now has to hobble around with a metal plate in it for the rest of her life.

Miss Porter, who has three other cats, has now called for tougher rules on the teenage yobs she believes committed the crime, and for parents to have better control over their children.

She said: "We are now trying to keep our cats in. If these youths are willing to shoot one cat, I am sure they will not care about shooting a second. "What they have done is barbaric and I cannot believe they have done something like this.

"It is easy to say the police should do more to enforce the law, but I do not know what the answer is. "Perhaps one step would be to make sure people are licensed to use every gun, including airguns.

"If I was a parent, I would not allow my children to wander around with airguns."

Miss Porter said she and her partner, Miles Shepherdson (43), often saw teenagers playing with the guns and firing them in the street. She added: "How long is it before these people take a gun into a school and cause someone injury?"

Sarah Cooper, spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police, said: "We treat all firearms offences as serious offences.

"People do not need a licence to own an air rifle, but if you are caught with one in public and you are misusing it, it will be seized, and you could face up to six months in prison."

[joebuck]

"Can you say shoot, shovel, shut up?"

I've also heard that soaking a can of cat food in a gallon of anti-freeze overnight and then leaving it out for tresspassing kitty, works too.

[jjmcgo]

Here's a self-identified future Jeffrey Dahmer.

[jjmcgo]

You should not be using FreeRepublic to advocate ways to commit crime.

[joebuck]

"You should not be using FreeRepublic to advocate ways to commit crime."

I'm certainly not advocating anyone committ a crime. And, on a second reading of my post I agree that it was an attempt at humor (failed) that was in poor taste. My bad.