Local animal lovers are concerned after at least two cases of cat abuse in Qualicum Beach.
“We got a phone call about a week ago from this lady who said she’d been feeding a wild cat for a while and that it had something wrapped around itself,” said Barb Ashmead of Qualicum Cat Rescue (QCR).
She said the woman, who lives off Jones Street, couldn’t get close enough to help the cat, but it became ill enough that a QCR volunteer was able to trap it and bring it to Lighthouse Veterinary Clinic.
“We thought it was a snare, but it wasn’t. At closer look, somebody had deliberately twisted the wire into this cat and then folded the wire back,” Ashmead said the vet confirmed.
The cat required surgery to remove the wire from skin that had grown over the wire, which she said the vet was able to remove and, if the stitches don’t split, the cat should recover within a couple weeks.
But Ashmead said she is worried about the behaviour and more incidents.
“We put it out on our Qualicum Cat Rescue Facebook (page) and we got a call from the Mid-Isle Vet Clinic saying they had a cat last October that had the same thing, and that person lived on (nearby) Beach Road,” Ashmead said.
“This is actual cruelty. Someone’s out there doing this deliberately. It wasn’t a snare, it was a deliberate act,” she said. “I don’t think people understand that if somebody’s being that cruel to an animal, there’s a direct line to them being cruel to a person.”
“And how many other cats has this happened to? How many cats have just disappeared?”
“It may be a sign of an individual or family in trouble, when you see animal abuse,” agreed Parksville-Qualicum Beach SPCA manager Nadine Durante.
“Research indicates that children from violent homes are more likely to abuse animals, more likely to become abusers of their children or spouses and more likely to commit violent crime, so there is a link,” she said, encouraging people to explore www.spca.bc.ca for resources and information.
Qualicum Cat Rescue will take care of the cat, which didn’t have an ear tattoo or identification, until it is ready to be adopted out in a month or two.
Ashmead said she contacted the SPCA and RCMP and the SPCA confirms they are looking into the matter.
All animal cruelty issues should be reported to the provincial line at 1-855-6BC-SPCA (1-855-622-7722) during the day or the RCMP after hours if it is urgent.
