Ohio Cat Shot in the Leg with an Arrow Is Forced to Endure a Long-Drawn-Out and Excruciating Death

"Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport. Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor. Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, bears, and ducks are...given twelve-gauge shotguns. Bet we'd see a lot fewer drunk (sic) yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened."
-- R. Lerner, Letter to Sierra Magazine, March-April 1991.

A male gray and brown cat was shot in the leg with an arrow sometime last week in Miami Township in Montgomery County, Ohio. He wandered around for several days in excruciating pain before he was spotted on July 27th in a trailer park on Chris Lane.

He was picked up by officers from Montgomery County Animal Care and Control and taken to the Animal Resource Center but it apparently was too late to save him. It is unclear from the record whether he died on his own or was subsequently killed by Animal Control. (See photo above.)

So far, no one has come forward to claim his body and since he was not wearing a collar the identity of his owner remains unknown. Both Animal Control and the Miami Police Department have appealed to the public for help in apprehending the perpetrator of this heinous crime.

"This type of intentional cruelty to animals can often lead to violence against people," Mark Kumpf, Animal Control director, said in a July 28th press release. "We hope that someone will come forward with information that will lead us to an arrest and conviction in this case."

Compared with antifreeze poisonings, illegal trapping and subsequent transfers to shelters for extermination, gunshot wounds, and vehicular homicides, hunting cats with bows and arrows is fairly rare. It does occasionally occur, however.

For instance, on August 17, 2005, a nine-week-old, one-pound, black and white kitten named Archer was shot with a twelve-inch metal and plastic arrow in the Tampa suburb of Tarpon Springs. The projectile, which missed his tiny heart by centimeters, broke a rib, punctured a lung, and pierced his liver. (See photo below.)

Fortunately, he was rescued in the nick of time by Kathy Powers, owner of Tropic Sign and Tropic Shirts, who secured prompt veterinary care for him. (See Cat Defender post of August 25, 2005 entitled "Nine-Week-Old Kitten Nicknamed Archer Recovering After Being Shot with Crossbow Near Tampa.")

Archer, subsequently adopted by Powers, has now made a complete physical recovery. His horrible ordeal, however, has left him traumatized for life. (See photo below of him with another of Powers' cats, Sole.) "He doesn't like any kind of strangers. He runs and hides," Powers told the St. Petersburg Times on August 24, 2006. (See "Man Who Shot Cat with Arrow Gets Thirty Days in Jail.")

Thanks to the large number of tips that they received from concerned citizens, the authorities arrested nineteen-year-old Stephen H. Cockerill of Palm Harbor two days after the incident. He immediately posted a $5,000 bond and was released.

On July 28, 2006, he pleaded guilty to one charge of animal cruelty and was sentenced by Circuit Judge Doug Baird to a measly thirty days in jail and put on probation for eighteen months. He was also barred from owning either any animals or weapons during his probationary period and to perform one-hundred hours of community service.

Cockerill was additionally ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation and to complete any followup treatment prescribed. Best of all for him, the judge declined to enter a formal judgment of guilt against him which means that he will not have a felony record if he successfully completes his probation.

His shyster, Elizabeth Hittos of Holiday, argued in court that the shooting was "sheerly accidental" in spite of the fact that eyewitnesses testified that her client also shot at a second cat. "He's a good kid, and this was a complete aberration," she told the St. Petersburg Times.

It was therefore left up to Assistant State Attorney Aaron Slavin to point out the obvious. "My position was that you don't accidentally shoot a kitten," he told the Times.

Despite having said that, Slavin inexplicably defended the light sentence handed down by the court. "The sentence, I think, is a fair balance of being strict and taking everything into account."

Based upon the conduct of both Slavin and Baird, it is quite obvious that prosecutors and judges are totally unwilling to take animal cruelty cases seriously. Just as disturbing is the fact that public condemnations of individuals who commit these despicable crimes is not deterring others from following in their footsteps.

The only remedy lies with state legislators who must be prevailed upon to put some teeth into anti-cruelty laws. This is not about to happen, however, until animal rights activists pressure them into acting. It is therefore imperative that votes and campaign contributions he withheld from all candidates unwilling to get tough with animal killers and abusers.

In a letter to Sierra Magazine back in 1991, R. Lerner summed up the situation rather well when he noted: "Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport. Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor. Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, and ducks are...given twelve-gauge shotguns."

He concluded by predicting, "Bet we'd see a lot fewer drunk (sic) yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened." Cleveland Amory put the matter even more starkly when he counseled, "Support your right to arm bears."

Since what Lerner and Amory have proposed is not about to happen, one alternative would be to have hunters divide up into teams before going into the bush and then to shoot at each other. That way they could still have their fun without murdering defenseless animals.

Better yet, they should be conscripted and shipped off to either Iraq or Afghanistan. The anti-imperialist forces operating in both countries will be glad to give them all the action that they can handle. Of course, it goes without saying that individuals who gun down cats and dogs are far too cowardly to ever stand up to an armed opponent who is willing to fight back.

Photos: Montgomery County Animal Care and Control (cat shot with arrow), Tampabay.com (Arrow after surgery), and Douglas R. Clifford of St. Petersburg Times (Archer and Sole.)