Joe the cat

Joe the cat, who is the poster boy for Sarnia animal abuse, and not by his own choice.

Joe the cat was found on the side of the road by a kind man to stopped to move what he thought was a dead cat off to the side of the road, as he was moving the cat it licked him, he was covered in blood and barely moving. The man rushed him to the Sarnia Humane Society who got him emergency vet care and the OSPCA was contacted. Joe was shot 17 times in the head with a pellet type gun. They were not sure if Joe would make it through the night, but he fought to live. After all this sweet boy had been through he still showed affections to all the humans he came into contact with.

A full investigation was launched, funds came in to help with Joes vetting care. The out cry from the community for justice for poor Joe who was forced to endure such cruel abuse. Many of us knew there at to be least two people involved as there is no way a cat would hold still to be shot over and over again.

After a short time (which felt like forever) a young adult was arrested, what felt like a great time later a second young adult was arrested. The police released the name of the first man arrested and then had to remove him name and a publication ban was put on the case as death threats and such towards the first young adult arrested. The public was angry that the second name was never released and all court information had a publication ban, but at the same time I understand so many people wanted to take justice into their own hands but by doing that we are making ourselves no better than the abusers themselves.

The court case is still on going and at every court date there are protesting demanding the full weight of the law be brought down on these two people.

There has been a lot of speculation on why they did this, there have been people say well its just a cat, etc, etc. Some one actually said "he shouldn't be charged with torturing an animal because his intent was to kill it, its just a cat"

Apparently Joe was a stray cat that the young adult boys found and then short with a pellet gun.

I hope in the end that they will be charged and given the max jail time in our province, which isn't nearly strict enough but until we can make the government see that we need stronger laws and penalties for people who abuse animals they will continue to get a slap on wrist.

Joe has since made a full recovery other than having to lose an eye, he had 100's of adoption applications come in for him and he has since found a wonderful home.

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