Kitten found in plastic bag, zip-tie around neck
New Ipswich, NH (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Apr 20, 2006
County: Hillsborough
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
A 5-month-old kitten named Sally is recovering in a Massachusetts animal hospital after surviving several days in a plastic bag with a zip tie around its neck.
"You could tell she was left for dead," said Diane Beausoleil, office manager at the Townsend Veterinary Hospital, where Sally was recovering yesterday. "I mean, they weren't just trying to get rid of her. They were trying to kill her."
Hospital employees said the tuxedo-colored house cat may have been in the plastic bag as long as four days before a New Hampshire cat owner heard its cries on the morning of Apriil 20. The kitten's neck, gripped tightly by a plastic zip tie, was bleeding and covered with maggots, hospital employees said.
"If she hadn't been found that day, she would have been dead by the next day," said Dr. Lynne O'Neil, who treated Sally.
A woman who takes her own cat to the Townsend animal hospital was raking her property on the New Ipswich-Greenville border when she heard the kitten's meow, Beausoleil said. She noticed the knotted plastic bag by the roadside, and as she looked, it moved.
Beausoleil, who said the woman did not want to be identified, said the cat was bundled in towels, which were covered in several days' worth of urine and feces.
Hospital employees hydrated and fed the kitten and treated the neck wound. Jennifer Bragdon, a veterinary technician, cleaned the cat and picked ticks from its skin.
Beausoleil said the kitten is expected to make a full recovery. Employees at the hospital, who gave the kitten its name, said Sally has taken a liking to the staffers' petting and attention.
"It's going to have a good ending," Beausoleil said. "It's just a horrific story, though. I mean, I don't understand what would make somebody do that."
New Ipswich Police Chief W. Garrett Chamberlain said his department is investigating the case. Police in Greenville may assist, he said.
"It's definitely a matter that the police department will pursue," Chamberlain said. References« NH State Animal Cruelty Map
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