Cat shot with airgun, left to die
Barnstaple, EN (UK)Incident Date: Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
A Barnstaple family is in shock after their beloved cat was shot with an airgun and left to die near their home.
The Brignell family, who live in East Park Road, Whiddon, had seven-year-old Patch put down after he was found paralysed with a spine wound.
The shooting is the latest in a handful of airgun attacks this year on cats in North Devon. No arrests had been made by the time the Journal went to press. A bus window was shattered by an airgun shot in Whiddon in October.
Tony Brignell went out to look for Patch when the cat failed to return as normal by 8pm on Tuesday last week. Just before 11pm he found Patch in grass nearby.
The cat was not moving but he was alive so the family took him to the Charter Veterinary Hospital in Roundswell.
The family assumed that Patch had been hit by a car. But an X-ray showed the pet had been shot in the shoulder with an airgun and the pellet had gone into the animal's spine, causing permanent damage.
Mrs Brignell said: "We just put him to sleep to save him the agony. I was devastated that anybody would do something like that to any animal.
"What kind of person does that and then to leave him to die is just despicable. Even if it were an accident, you don't leave them to die."
Mrs Brignell thanked the vet staff and has now had to tell her children, three-year-old Keira and one-year-old Callum, that their pet Patch has died.
PC Glynn Clark is investigating. He said: "I am asking if anybody has heard or seen anything. An airgun has got a distinctive pop and the pellets might have ricocheted, causing noise."
Patch is not the first cat shooting victim this year and Charter vet Dave Tittle said his surgery dealt with three of four shot cats a year.
In January a pet cat called Chalky was fatally shot in Charles Dart Crescent in Barnstaple. After the Journal reported that shooting, two other cat owners came forward to say their pets had also been hit with an airgun. And a pregnant pet cat called Marble was shot in Chittlehampton in March. She took two days to die as the pellet worked through her intestines and the trauma caused her to go into premature labour, giving birth to five kittens.
If you know anything about the shootings, phone the police on 08452 777444 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 using crime reference number CB/08/4824. If you have information on this case, please contact:
Crimestoppers
0800 555111
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