Pet cats shot in twin city cruelty | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

A spate of pet cruelty in Hawke's Bay has left owners and animal carers distraught after cats and dogs were shot or scalded with hot liquid.

The Napier SPCA and Animal Care veterinary clinic in Havelock North have reported incidents of at least three cats being shot with air rifles and a Napier kitten left scarred after being scalded with boiling liquid.

There were also reports of pellets being fired at dogs in Tamatea.

The Coles family of Havelock North were distraught after their pet cat, Minnie, was shot at close range and left to die.

Georgina Coles, 18, found Minnie pulling herself by her front legs across their Te Mata Peak Road lawn on Saturday morning.

The four-year-old cat, adopted from the Waipukurau SPCA, was unable to move her hind quarters due to the bullet wound that penetrated her internal organs and lodged in her abdomen.

"She was so desperate to get home she took the short way through the sprinkler," Georgina said.

"We thought she had been hit by a car because she couldn't move her back legs or tail. She was in so much pain, she kept fainting in the car on the way to vet."

Animal Care veterinarian Kate Holland said an hour-and-a-half was spent operating on Minnie, who had to have three-quarters of her bladder removed and an abdominal wall reconstructed.

"There was a fine line between euthanising and going through with surgery, and we didn't know if surgery would result with a live animal," she said.

"It is still early days but we are quite hopeful it will be about a month or two [to recover]."

A Hastings cat was also brought to the clinic on Thursday with a bullet lodged in its leg.

The cat was in so much pain it had to be sedated just to be examined.

In Napier, a tortoiseshell cat was found shot between the eyes and left with a bullet lodged in the roof of its mouth a fortnight ago, and a 10-week-old ginger kitten was found on Monday with scarring on much of its body after being scalded with boiling liquid.

Inspector Lorna Thompson said both cats were friendly and domesticated, and there was no excuse for such cruel and neglectful treatment.

"It is sheer neglect, there is no excuse for it," she said.

"It is quite upsetting to know that someone can do that to an animal, let alone a cute little 10-week-old kitten.

"There would have been a lot of pain involved for them, and we think they hid away to deal with it, so now they have lost a lot of their condition."

To make matters worse, Miss Thompson said there were also reports of someone using a slingshot to shoot "pellets" at dogs in Tamatea. Last month, three pet cats from different homes on Georges Drive, Napier South, were shot with one dying from its wounds, another losing a leg and the third going missing.

The missing cat, Tim, had recovered from a previous gunshot to the face last August.

A police spokesperson said culprits could face criminal charges for their actions.

"It is taken very seriously," he said. "There are two aspects to it, the first is the cruelty to the animal itself and the second is the upset and concern to the owners to know that this has happened.

"Most of the people in the police have pets of our own and understand how important they are to people."