Cat shot with bow and arrow Kalamazoo, MI (US) Incident Date: Friday, Sep 30, 2005 County: Kalamazoo Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Alleged: Donald Morris

Case ID: 6185 Classification: Shooting Animal: cat View more cases in MI (US) Animal was offleash or loose Login to Watch this Case

When Marie and Chuck Burge's cat, B.B., was shot with an arrow by a hunter in October, the Burges weren't sure what their legal options were. Despite some initial confusion over the penalty for shooting a pet, Marie Burge was relieved to eventually learn the law is on her side.

Now that it is hunting season, hunters and pet owners should be aware that shooting a cat or dog can be classified as felony animal cruelty in Michigan, an offense punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and four years in prison.

Donald Morris, the man charged with shooting the Burges' cat, faces a misdemeanor charge, punishable by up to 93 days in jail, up to 200 hours of community service and fines up to $1,000, not including veterinarian and court costs. A warrant was issued Nov. 1 for Morris' arrest.

People have to know that you can't just go out and shoot domestic animals,'' said Steve Lawrence, director of Kalamazoo County Animal Services and Enforcement. Lawrence contacted Burge after reading a letter to the editor in the Kalamazoo Gazette. Until that time Burge, a Cooper Township resident, believed the shooting of her cat did not to violate any laws.

Lt. Ray Boehringer of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said many people are unaware that shooting a pet is a criminal offense. Boehringer said he has received calls asking if it's legal to shoot a neighbor's pet if it is on the caller's property.

It's never OK to shoot a cat. Obviously they don't attack livestock, you can shoo them off, and they don't attack people,'' Boehringer said. ``The only person that can shoot a dog is a law enforcement officer, ever -- unless they are chasing livestock or chasing a person.''

The Burges initially didn't realize a law had been broken when their cat was shot, and neither did John Dockweiler, of Kalamazoo, whose father's cat was shot by a teenage boy a decade ago.
Lawrence said the confusion comes from the misunderstanding some have that shooting domestic animals is sometimes legal.

``It's the old wives-tale thing. It's misinformation,'' he said. ``Then you have things that make the news, like Wisconsin trying to make the law to have open season on hunting cats.'' A bill in Wisconsin to legalize shooting any cat without a collar roaming off its owners' property recently failed.

In the Burge and Dockweiler cases, once they discovered a law had been broken, they said, bringing charges against the people who killed their cats was more difficult than they had imagined.

I had trouble with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department,'' Dockweiler said. He said the deputy who responded to his call told him there wasn't anything he could do. He told Dockweiler, I don't like cats.''

Lieutenant Wally Kipp, of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department, said the department takes animal-cruelty charges seriously. We did not minimize the charge of animal cruelty,'' Kipp said.
Kipp added that investigating pet-shooting cases is difficult because owners often don't know who shot their pets.

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References

Kalamazoo Gazette - November 21, 2005

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