Cat shot by air rifle near Enborne

Shocked owner brands those responsible at "sick and cruel"

A PET owner has labelled those responsible for shooting her one-year-old cat with an air rifle as “sick and cruel”.

Jo Holland, who lives in Crockham Heath, found her cat Ed on Sunday after he had gone missing the day before.

After hours of searching for him, he was eventually found with a cut on his side and had difficulty moving.

Jo, who also keeps ponies and dogs, took him to the vet where it was found that Ed had, in fact, been shot with an air rifle pellet which had perforated his bowel.

Ed underwent extensive surgery to repair the damage on Tuesday night and returned home yesterday (Wednesday). It is hoped he will make a full recovery.

A shocked and disgusted Jo told the that “he's back with us now and he seems to be a bit better after the surgery.

“It’s a very sick and very cruel person who has done this.

“If we hadn’t have found Ed he would have died a horrible death.

“I can’t understand why anybody would do this, and the worst thing is, unless you catch them red-handed you can’t stop it.

“The thought that somebody’s done this is absolutely horrible.

“I’m so angry about it.”

The shooting comes just three months after two cats were targeted with air rifles in separate incidents in Baughurst Common and Upper Bucklebury.

Both animals survived.

Jo said: “I know it’s happened before but not here.

“It tends to be in more built-up areas.

“The vet was really shocked and said he’d never seen anything like this happen in this area.”

Jo is now hoping to make other residents in the area aware of the situation by posting flyers around the village in an effort to prevent the same thing happening to other family pets.

“If I can bring attention to it, I’m just hoping that whoever has done it might realise that people are very upset and that they better not do it again,” she said.

“To shoot somebody’s pet is needlessly cruel. He's only a year old and he’s very special to us.”

Police were notified of the incident and a spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said it was currently not under investigation.