Cat shot with arrow stories
by Michael
(London, UK)
I want to thank Troy Reimink at MLive.com for reminding us in his article that far too often on the internet we read about a cat being shot with an arrow. In this instance I am talking about the USA but similar examples of cat abuse and cruelty take place in the UK and Europe.
OK, we also read about cats being burned, put into microwaves and shot with air guns (a favourite in the UK) but shooting a cat through the head with an arrow (ideally) seems to be the flavour of the month. And we are not talking about isolated incidences. This is a fairly common form of animal abuse.
WHY!? What the hell is the matter with the world?
I sense without reading the individual stories – and this is probably me being biased and prejudiced – that the people doing this are young men and occasionally young women. The prime perpetrator is probably a man in his early twenties or teens.
Some of the cats miraculously survive. Some are euthanised and some are killed by the arrow.
I wonder if this is a growing problem as a result of the dire recession that has hit the USA. More idleness supported by poor upbringing and a complete disconnection with the obvious fact that this will kill and cause pain. The same disconnect takes place with declawing.
There seems to be a body of people in the US who regard the domestic cat as something to shoot and hurt as a pastime.
It seems to bring pleasure to do this. We don’t seem to get any examples of the same form of animal cruelty with dogs. Has anyone read about a dog being shot with an arrow? I haven’t. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong places.
One aspect of this casual and cruel form of animal abuse is that the perpetrators are it appears, rarely arrested and convicted. I really don’t think that the police take this sort of minor crime seriously. This is to be expected as millions of cats are killed legally every year in cat shelters. The value of the life of a cat is very low indeed.
I wonder too whether the fact that feral cats are so mercilessly slaughtered in such large numbers is one underlying factor that cheapens the life of a cat. It sends out a signal that cats are worthless and can therefore be shot at for fun.
Clearly people who shoot cats with arrows are damaged individuals but the government of America by implication endorses the mass killing of cats by accepting it year in and year out. The governments of the states and the federal government should, I feel, take some blame for this.
If the recession is a factor too, the government should take some blame for that for a failure to regulate the greedy banks sufficiently.
The domestic cat’s life is not valued highly enough. I have a neighbour who casually lets her cats wander onto the road. When I mentioned that this would one day lead to the death of the cat (I named her Pippa), she looked at me as if I had four heads. Soon after Pippa was dead. She now has another cat who does the same thing. Cheap cat lives. Irresponsible humans.
The thing is this: she has a massive garden and tons of money. She could have built an enclosure.
