Mansfield cat shooting epidemic: £1,000 reward for information after kitten's leg is shot off

Janice Dixon, of Dixon and Young vets in Ollerton, removed one-year-old cat Monty’s front leg after the bone was shattered when somebody shot him with a air rifle.

And she says this is just one case in a long-running spree of cat shootings in Mansfield, which she says every vet in the area has to deal with multiple times every year.

Monty was shot on Wednesday evening (January 29) in the Oak Rose and Lansbury Road area of Bilsthorpe.

“I don’t know if it is just some kind of awful sport for people around here, but air rifles seem to be a popular way to dispatch of cats,” Ms Dixon said.

“It is a huge problem. We also see a lot of cat poisonings. If you ask any vet in the local area they will have treated cases, and Bilsthorpe is one of the worst for it.

“I once treated a woman’s cat that had been shot. And while I was treating it, her other cat was shot with a pellet gun.

“There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.”

The vet says that the location where Monty was shot implies that the shooter was aiming to do more than just injure the kitten.

“The fact that it was Monty’s front leg that was hit suggests to me that the shooter was aiming for his heart to kill him and missed,” she explained.

“Cats are good at hiding how they feel, but when I treated him I could tell he was very shocked and in a lot of distress.

“The pellet went into his leg and bounced off the bone, which completely shattered.

“He is on three legs now, and he is getting on okay, but it is not a good start for a cat who is only one year old.

“It is awful. We need to put a stop to this. I think people know who it is. I’m hoping somebody will come forward.

“That’s why we are offering £1,000 for anybody who can help bring about a prosecution.”

Monty’s owner Emma Davenport has had five cats before Monty, all of whom were shot or poisoned.

She first thought that Monty had been injured in a fall when he limped home with his badly broken leg, but x-rays at the vets showed that he had been shot like her other cats.

“I was disheartened to find he had been shot,” she said. “I thought we had enough eyes watching to make sure everyone’s pets were safe.

“Someone must know something. You can’t fire a gun and it not be heard.”

Anybody with any information can contact Dixon and Young vets in Ollerton.

Nottinghamshire Police have been contacted about the issue and are also investigating.