Battle Creek cat shot with crossbow

Battle Creek police are looking for the person who shot a cat with a crossbow.

The black male cat survived the attack and the arrow, or bolt, was removed Tuesday from its neck.

"I went out to get my recycling bins," said Laurie Sullivan, "and he was laying under a tree. He had known me and had been here before."

It was a cat Sullivan, a former Battle Creek City Commissioner, had seen and fed before at her home on Frelinghuysen Avenue, and at first she thought he had just come by for some food.

But then she noticed the 15-inch arrow in his neck.

"I was mortified," she said. "He lifted his head and looked at me and let me pick him up."

Sullivan, who has rescued cats, called Dr. Benjamin Huelsbergen at Turner Veterinary Clinic, 3070 W. Michigan Ave.

It was about 8 a.m. Tuesday and the doctor saw the cat immediately and was able to remove the arrow.

"The arrow passed through the skin from left to right," Huelsbergen said. "It didn't damage any muscle or bone in the neck, basically passing through the nape of the neck only. The arrow pulled out easily and should heal nicely with appropriate antibiotics."

Sullivan said she is keeping the cat quarantined in her house while he receives the medication for the next 10 days and said she expects him to recover fully.

She said it appears the cat was shot over the weekend.

Police are looking for information about the shooting, said Battle Creek Animal Control Officer Mike Ehart.

Shooting a cat is a felony, he said. The animal cruelty or torture charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Battle Creek Police Department at 966-3322 or Silent Observer at 964-3888.

The shooting parallels another case reported last month in Eaton County. A cat was shot through the chest with a crossbow in Kalamo Township and required surgery, the Lansing State Journal reported. The cat was recovering well.

Vets successfully remove crossbow arrow from cat

The shooting amplifies a problem of stray cats in the city, Ehart and Sullivan said.

Ehart said animal control officers collected between 1,700 and 1,800 stray cats last year and he estimates there are thousands roaming the city.

Two years ago near Kingman Avenue and Highway Street, Ehart said he found 42 strays.

Many people just abandon their cats because they are moving or decide they can't afford to care for them, he said.

Sullivan has five cats living in her house and feeds others that come and go, she said.

She is an advocate of a program to trap stray cats and have them spayed or neutered, and then released.

The Trap-Neuter-Return program is conducted in several other cities and is being studied in Battle Creek as a way to reduce the number of feral or stray cats, according to Ehart and Lt. John Chrenenko.

The program has support from some local veterinarians and groups like Companion Cats, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said she has taken about 100 stray cats to vets to have them spayed or neutered in the last 10 years before releasing them, she said.

The nameless cat that was shot was someone's pet, Sullivan believes. "He was purring and trusting and loving 24 hours later."

She said he will be released after his treatment is complete, "unless someone wants to give him a home."

Contact Trace Christenson at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson