Cat disabled after being shot at with air rifle

AUCKLAND - A cat in New Zealand was left disabled after being shot at with an air rifle, prompting its owner to file a police report.

Lyn Poultney from Tauranga said the family’s four-year-old cat TJ went missing from their home about a fortnight ago. When TJ limped home four days later, Lyn realised something was wrong.

“He was dragging his front right leg. At first we thought a dog had bitten him.”

She took him to a vet, who told her the bone was shattered in the cat’s leg and the leg would have to be amputated.

“The vet rang back in the afternoon and said TJ hadn’t been bit by a dog - he’d been shot, at close range.”

A lead air rifle pellet was pulled from TJ’s wound, the New Zealand Herald reported.

“You could tell it was shot at close range by looking at the x-ray - you could see where the bits of bone had been smashed by the bullet.

“When I heard she’d been shot, I said, ‘you’re bloody joking’. I was furious.”

“I’ve lived in this street for 10 years now and there’s never been any problems. Why now? It also makes me worry for my children. If someone could do that to an animal, what’s to stop them firing at one of the kids on their way to school?”