NEWS AND OPINION: Ozzy Osbourne said that he shoots cats with an air rifle that wander into his garden (and birds). He has also campaigned on behalf of PETA to ban the declawing of cats. He appears to have a schizophrenic approach to cat welfare. However, I hope and believe that he is kidding when he says that he is shooting cats. He says that it keeps him sane during coronavirus lockdowns. He made the disclosure in a radio interview reported by The Mirror newspaper. Justifiably, he has been widely criticised on social media.
He has, though, been criticised for his treatment of animals in the past. He also claims to shoot birds. He said that shooting these animals “gets me out of my head, man”. He is worried that he is not going to walk properly again because he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last year.
When he first started to shoot he admits to being a failure – “I could not shoot. Now there’s dead cats and birds every minute.”
He said that when he starts shooting they disappear or in his language: “They f*** off.”
The Ladbible writer advises that we take what he says with a pinch of salt as we should do with many things that Ozzy Osbourne says.
In fact, his daughter, Kelly, has campaigned against killing seals for their coats and his wife, Sharon, has donated her furs to PETA. She narrated an exposé on the cruelty of the fur industry and the chinchilla fur trade.
THERE ARE SOME PAGES ON SHOOTING FERAL CATS AT THE BASE OF THE PAGE.
As the poster of Ozzy Osbourne clearly shows, declawing cats is not removing the claws or the ‘nails’ as the veterinarians like to describe them (to allieviate their guilt) but entails 10 amputations of each toe from the last knuckle. That is why it is desperately cruel particularly as it is done for the convenience of cat owners and causes such enormous pain. [Pages tagged with cat declawing].
Comment: what are we to make of Ozzy Osbourne’s claims about shooting animals? It would be nice to know whether he is kidding or being serious. My gut feeling is that he is serious about it. It’s a bizarre dichotomy in that he is on the one hand being kind of animals and on the other being cruel to them but perhaps that is exactly the sort of person he is?
It should be said that if it is true, he is almost certainly committing a crime under California’s animal welfare laws. And they are likely to be someone’s pet cat! I mean you can’t shoot neighbours’ domestic cats. He must be kidding surely?