British Punks Are Having a Field Day Maiming Cats with Air Guns but the Peelers Continue to Look the Other Way

"The kids were about to go out on their bikes and opened the back door. Ebony was waiting to come in. They screamed and said she had blood on her face. I noticed that her eye was hanging down to her cheek."
-- Virginia Dale

Scarcely a day passes without the English press being replete with shocking stories of cats and kittens that have been either killed or abused by male juveniles. During Guy Fawkes Day celebrations each November the punks' weapon of choice is usually firecrackers. (See Cat Defender post of November 30, 2006 entitled "Yobs Celebrating Guy Fawkes Day Kill Twelve-Year-Old Cat Named Tigger with Fireworks; Cat Named Sid Is Severely Burned.")

For the remainder of the year, they rely upon air and BB (ball bearing) guns. The fact that the authorities in Old Blighty, Wales, and Scotland even allow the manufacture and sale of these deadly weapons is a crime in and of itself and one for which they should be prosecuted.

In Wrexham, Wales, a two-year-old black cat named Ebony lost her right eye to a pellet fired from an air rifle on March 30th. (See photo on the left.)

Thirty-six-year-old Virginia Dale of Caia Park, who has cared for Ebony ever since she showed up on her doorstep shortly after entering this wicked old world, described to the Evening Leader on April 3rd just how she and her kids came to discover that she had been shot. "The kids were about to go out on their bikes and opened the back door. Ebony was waiting to come in. They screamed and said she had blood on her face. I noticed that her eye was hanging down to her cheek." (See "Pet Cat's Eye Shot Out.")

The vets were unable to save the eye and therefore had to suture her eyelid shut. In the process they had to shave the fur from about half of her face and she was forced to wear an Elizabethan collar until her face and vacant eye socket healed.

At last report, Ebony is still having a difficult time adjusting to having only one eye. "She is off-balance and walking backwards and (it) seems like she is always ready to pounce on someone," Dale said.

Not only have the police in North Wales failed to make an arrest in the case but a spokeswoman for the department even denies that the area has a problem with yobs attacking cats.

The incident has left both Dale and her children traumatized. "I was disgusted, the thought of someone hitting her deliberately is horrendous. Two of my children have nightmares because of it," she said.

Like any person of bon sens on this planet, she is incredulous at parents that allow their kids to have air and BB guns. "If someone has done this on purpose, I can't believe parents have bought their children air guns," she complained.

In Stenhousemuir, Scotland, ten-year-old Jacky Boy was shot in the face with an air gun on March 19th. He survived the attack but a pellet lodged between his jawbone and brain and cannot be surgically removed without endangering his life.

His guardian, thirty-two-year-old Fiona Proctor, told The Falkirk Herald on March 22nd that had the pellet been just a couple of centimeters higher it would have entered his brain and killed him. "It was bad enough when we thought he had been run over, but when we realized someone did this deliberately -- it's appalling," she added. (See "Gun Terror on the Streets.")

Like the Dales, the incident has left Proctor and her two children, seven-year-old Jay and ten-year-old Kirsteen, devastated. (See photo below of the Proctors and Jacky Boy.)

To make matters worse, their family cat faces an uncertain future. "He may yet suffer permanent problems because of the injuries," veterinarian David Charity of Pets Friends Veterinary Clinic told The Falkirk Herald.

Unprovoked attacks of this sort are not confined to cats. Three days earlier on March 16th, a trio of coeds at nearby Falkirk High School were hosed down with BB guns as they walked to class. Fortunately, they were able to get away from their attackers before they were seriously injured.

More recently in Silksworth, a suburb of Sunderland on England's North Sea, a ten-year-old black cat named Flopsy lost his right leg to a pellet fired from an air rifle by yobs who were using him for target practice. He was also shot in the back.

After the vicious attack, Flopsy was able to make his way back to six-year-old Chloe Bell's playhouse where he collapsed in a pool of blood. (See photo below.) Quite understandably, the cruelty inflicted upon her beloved cat has had a devastating effect upon the young girl.

"She was absolutely distraught," Louise, her thirty-five-year-old mother, told the Sunderland Echo on April 30th. (See "Cat Maimed by Gun Yobs.") "I had to go into her school the next day to tell the teachers why she was so upset."

Although he is expected to live, Flopsy is having a difficult time getting used to moving about on only three legs. He is able to make it to the litter box but that is about all so far.

With time and rehabilitation, his strength hopefully will return. Many cats in fact do rather well after they have lost a limb. (See Cat Defender posts of February 9, 2006 and November 2, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Newspaper Cat Named Tripod Is Killed Off by Journalists He Befriended in Vermont" and "Three-Legged, Bobtailed Cat Named Opie Melts the Hearts of Hardened Criminals at Rural Tennessee Prison.")

As per usual, the yobs have gotten away scot-free with another hideous crime against cats. "We've reported this incident to the police, but unfortunately there are no witnesses, so there's nothing they can do," Louise told The Echo.

The United States also has its share of cat-hating punks. Last autumn, a group of them from the Atlantic City suburb of Pleasantville beat up and then set on fire a defenseless kitten. (See Cat Defender post of October 5, 2006 entitled "New Jersey Teens' Idea of Fun: Beat Up a Defenseless Kitten and Then Burn It to Death.")

On March 26th, the bodies of an orange and yellow cat and a tortoiseshell kitten were found hanging on a fence outside a no-kill shelter in Huntington, Indiana. An arrow had been used to attach the adult cat to the fence. (See The Gazette Journal of Fort Wayne, March 28, 2007, "Dead Cats Found on Fence at Pet Shelter.")

In addition to attacking cats, American youth also get their kicks shooting up schoolhouses and beating to death homeless men. In fact, the latter has become so prevalent that it is rapidly eclipsing baseball as the nation's pastime. (See National Coalition for the Homeless, "Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA: A Report on Hate Crimes and Violence Against People Experiencing Homelessness, 2006.")

Since both the United Kingdom and the United States share not only a common language and culture but also similar economic and political systems, it is not surprising that both societies are rotting from the roots. There are quite obviously a large number of mothers and fathers in both countries who do not take their parenting responsibilities seriously.

If they did, they would teach their children that it is morally reprehensible to abuse and kill both defenseless animals and individuals. It is even more shocking that neither the peelers, politicians, nor courts take such assaults seriously.

It is long overdue that these types of attacks were stopped and both yobs and their worthless parents held legally accountable. Any society that is unwilling to protect its most vulnerable members, both animals and individuals, has relinquished its moral authority to exist.

Photos: Evening Leader (Ebony), The Falkirk Herald (Jacky Boy and his family), and the Sunderland Echo (Flopsy and Chloe Bell).