KAILUA-KONA — A cat was reportedly found with a hunting arrow through its body recently on the side of Makala Boulevard near the main entrance to Target.
The animal, who didn’t have any identification indicating ownership, was reportedly paralyzed by the arrow and later put down.
Roxy O’Neal, the Hawaii Island Humane Society’s Kona shelter manager, said she received a call at about 1:44 a.m. Tuesday about a cat that had been injured by an arrow.
O’Neal said the cat was a tabby and white male, about 5 years old and weighed approximately 8 pounds.
“An otherwise perfectly healthy cat,” she said.
The arrow, she said, was about 2 feet in length, causing entry and exit wounds to the animal.
“When I arrived on the scene, O’Neal said, “the cat was paralyzed and had a significant amount of blood loss due to the type of arrow used.”
The arrow, she explained, was tipped with a mechanical broadhead and is “designed to do more damage than your typical arrowhead,” she said.
O’Neal said the person who called in the incident reported seeing the animal around 11:45 p.m. At that time, O’Neal said, the cat was seen walking around the parking lot.
That narrows the window of the incident to a couple hours.
Because of the animal’s injuries, O’Neal said she made the decision to euthanize the cat.
“There was no good prognosis for that animal with those types of injuries,” she said.
Cases of animal abuse aren’t uncommon, she said.
However, she said, what was unusual was the very public place in which the incident occurred and the use of a hunting arrow.
“This is still a very intentional act of cruelty against an animal,” she said.
Hawaii state law forbids the torture or mutilation of pet animals as well as the killing or attempted killing of pet animals without the legal authority or consent of the animal’s owner.
Violation of that law is considered a class C felony and carries a sentence of one to five years imprisonment.
O’Neal said a report was filed by police, though Hawaii Police Department spokeswoman Chris Loos said that as of Thursday afternoon, she wasn’t able to find any animal cruelty cases related to the incident.
