Shaven from Head to Tail and Left to Freeze to Death in the Ontario Cold, Chopper Is Saved at the Last Minute

Chopper with Kelly Spero of the Ontario SPCA

"He was probably just trying to survive on the street and someone decided to do this to him. It isn't something that just happened...this obviously took time and forethought."
-- Dave Wilson

Wintertime is hard enough on homeless cats without fiends shaving them from head to tail. That nevertheless was the cruel fate that befell a twelve-week-old orange kitten named Chopper from Chatham-Kent in southwest Ontario last month.

He apparently was held upside down by the tip of his tail while his sides, head, tail, and belly were divested of their fur. The monsters who committed this appalling act of animal cruelty also did such a mean job of shaving that they inflicted numerous cuts over his tiny body.

Fortunately for him, he was discovered crying and shivering on an unidentified homeowner's porch on Selkirk Street and brought to the local branch of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (OSPCA). In addition to his obvious injuries, he also was found to have a respiratory infection, fleas, worms, and ear mites.

If he had not died from either hypothermia or infection, he surely would have starved to death because he was so skinny that his hip bones and ribs were clearly visible through his skin. "He was in rough shape... we didn't know if he'd make it," Dave Wilson of the OSPCA told The Chatham Daily News on November 29th. (See "Kitten Left in Cold after Coat Cut.")

Despite odds of a million to one against him, Chopper's injuries are healing and his other maladies are improving as well. Even his fur should grow back in time.

Just as importantly, his days as a stray are over in that he has a new home waiting for him as soon as he is cleared by the veterinarians to leave the hospital.

Amazingly enough, all the hell that he has been through has not robbed him of his faith in mankind. "He's probably one of the most affectionate cats or kittens you're ever going to meet," Wilson added. "It just continues to amaze us how forgiving these little guys are and how willing they are to give us a second chance."

That petit fait alone demonstrates writ large that animals are sans doute morally superior to man. "Of all the creatures ever made he (man) is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one...that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain," Mark Twain once observed. "The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures, but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot."

Unfortunately, the cretins responsible for Chopper's injuries probably never will be caught and brought to justice. Even on those rare occasions when feline abusers and killers are apprehended the courts invariably let them off with slaps on the wrists.

"He was probably just trying to survive on the street and somebody decided to do this to him," is how Wilson summed up Chopper's plight to The Chatham Daily News in the article cited supra. "It isn't something that just happened...this obviously took time and forethought."

Anyone with any information that might lead to the arrest of the culprits is urged to contact either the OSPCA at (519) 354-1713 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

Smudgie with Nicki White's Daughter, Felicity

Several thousand miles away in the city of Toowoomba in southeast Queensland, a seven-week-old charcoal-colored kitten named Smudgie had a chilling experience himself on November 12th when he was deliberately locked inside a refrigerator. How he got there is a mystery.

At first it was assumed that burglars, who had stolen several electronic devices, were responsible for his confinement. Following their arrests, however, detective Scott Stahlhut confounded the community by publicly stating that there was not any evidence to suggest that was the case.

According to Smudgie's guardian, Nicki White, she and her daughters heard the kitten crying from inside the icebox after they returned home to their Campbell Street residence. "He was upset, but very happy to see us," she told the Toowoomba Chronicle on November 14th. (See " Burglars Condemn Pet Cat to Chilly Fate.")

Although Smudgie appears to have come through his ordeal none the worse for wear, the outcome could have been altogether different if the Whites had not returned home when they did. "I don't think it would survive for more than a couple of hours," veterinarian Alistair Webb told the Chronicle in the article cited supra.

While it is entirely possible that the thieves did indeed lock Smudgie in the refrigerator, that explanation is suspect. First of all, the kitten more than likely would have secreted himself away the moment that he realized that strangers were in the house.

Secondly, the burglars would have had to first capture him before they could imprison him and given the fact that thieves want to get in and get out as quickly as possible it is highly unlikely that they would waste valuable time chasing down a kitten. It is therefore conceivable that someone from the White household is responsible for this dastardly deed.

The only thing for certain right now is that Smudgie certainly did not lock himself in the icebox. "It's hard to imagine how a seven-week-old kitten could get inside a fridge on its own," Webb hypothesized for the Chronicle.

"It's despicable behavior if someone has put it in there," he added. Nevertheless, Australians have a long history of not only horribly mistreating cats but slaughtering them by the millions. (See Cat Defender posts of August 11, 2005 and September 21, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Barbaric Australians Come Up with an Ingenious New Poison in Order to Exterminate Cats" and "Aussies' Mass Extermination of Cats Opens the Door for Mice and Rabbits to Wreak Havoc on Macquarie.")

In fact, there is an ongoing contest between them, the New Zealanders, and the South Africans to determine which nation can kill the most cats each year. (See Cat Defender posts of September 22, 2005 and April 17, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Two New Zealand Teens Douse Three Caged Cats with Glue and Burn Them to Death" and "Cat-Hating Monster Les Underhill and Moneygrubbing Robben Island Museum Resume Slaughtering Cats in South Africa.")

The four unidentified men charged in the burglary of the Whites' residence are due to appear in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on December 15th and perhaps evidence presented at that time will shine some light on who was responsible for trying to kill Smudgie.

Photos: Erica Bajer of The Chatham Daily News (Chopper and Spero) and the Toowoomba Chronicle (Smudgie and White).