Conference misery::feline_v1

657.0. "SPECIAL CAT" by VAXWRK::DUDLEY () Sat Jul 11 1987 14:52

    From the Worcester Evening Gazette, Friday, July 10, 1987:
    
    DARTS BRING FEAR AND PAIN, BUT LOVE EASES CAT'S ORDEAL
    ======================================================
    
    She is badly wounded and, naturally, frightened by it all.
    
    But the young stray feline will make it, thanks to the loving
    care of the Baylies family of Charlton.
    
    The cat was found Wednesday near the Charlton Center Coffee
    shop on Masonic Hill Rd.  Police said she had been hit by
    metal-shafted darts from and air-powered gun in the area of
    the face and upper body, and lay bleeding on the ground, pos-
    sibly for several days.
    
    Following an investigation, police said they will bring charges
    against a Charlton man under the cruelty-to-animals statue. 
    The man will be summoned to appear in Dudley District Court at
    a later date, police said.
    
    Walter and Carol Baylies and their daughter, Donna, who have
    assisted on numerous animal rescue calls in the town, were 
    asked to help the wounded cat.  Mrs. Baylies brought her portable
    carrier to the scene and the animal was taken to the office of
    Dr. David Cracken, an Oxford veterinarian who removed two darts
    embedded in the cat's head.
    
    "The prognosis is favorable but with reservations of the recovery
    of sight in the cat's right eye," Dr. McCracken said today.
    
    He said when the cat was brought to the Oxford Animal Hospital,
    it had two metal dart shafts lodged in its head.
    
    "One was through the left cheek and the other to the head,
    entering near the right eye," Dr. McCracken said.  "We took x-rays
    and then removed the shafts."
    
    He said it was the first time in his 10years at the Oxford hospital
    that he has seen injuries to a cat caused from metal darts.
    
    "Usually it is automobiles, cat and dog fights, bites, scratches,
    or BB guns that do them in.  Sometimes you wonder how cats can
    exist when they step out of the house and into the world around
    them," McCracken said.
    
    The cat is now in the care of the Baylies family.  Walter Baylies
    works for the town h ighway department, which is located a short
    distance from the coffee shop.  He was called initially and
    notified his wife to come to help.
    
    "It was sad, really sad," said Mrs. Baylies.  "I think the cat had
    been there, wounded, for at least a couple of days.  Someone who
    saw the cat earlier thought that it had been in a fight with a
    porcupine but a closer look could tell you it was struck by long,
    thin steel darts."
    
    She said the cat was struck above and under the right eye and in
    the neck and upper body.  Mrs. Baylies said she will nurse the cat
    back to good health, but would like to find a good home for it.
    
    "She's a nice cat, brown, black and white, who has been through
    a tremendous ordeal," she said.  "She deserves a good home."
    
    The Baylies have nine cats and six dogs and run a sort of 
    unofficial animal refuge for stray and abused animals.  The family
    can be contacted at Coburn Road or through the police department
    if anyone is interested in taking the cat.
    
    

    Yes, I saw that article.  Though this doesn't seem like something
    to be happy about, there are 2 good things in regards to this article.
    One, it made the front page.  With the growing acceptance of cruelty
    to animals as some 'macho thing', it's nice to see someone considering
    it an important enough issue to put on the front page.  Two, the
    guy who did it was caught and will be prosecuted (I assume).  That
    means that the law considers this something to be concerned about.
    
    

    I hope the man (monster) who did that rots in hell.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Hang him from the nearest scratching post!!
    
    Marion

    .2  Don't worry, he will!  He must have come from Hell
        so he will undoubtedly return there!
    

    Re .2-.4:
    
    The problem is, there's a certain type of mentality that doesn't
    think of, or actually enjoys inflicting, pain in an animal.  Some
    do it because the animal's "a nuisance"; others because killing
    or mortally injuring something makes them feel big or perhaps macho.
    The only way to hurt such people is in the wallet or by putting
    them in the slammer.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

        Steve's almost right.  But you should remove the 'OR'...
    "...to hurt such people is in the wallet AND by putting..."
    
    
    -Tom