Northern Ireland Maine Coon partially blinded by a shotgun blast

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NORTHERN IRELAND - NEWS AND COMMENT: Although the story is not hot off the press it is news nonetheless and it does tell us how vulnerable domestic cats are to spontaneous acts of violence, often by young men. In this instance the event occurred in Halfgayne Road in Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Maine Coon partially blinded by a shotgun blast
 Maine Coon Leo before being shot and partially blinded
 by a shotgun blast. Photo. Maureen.

Maureen Newman's Maine Coon, whose name is Leo was with his owner on their property. Leo climbed along the garage roof. It appears that he was visible from the road because somebody, using a shotgun, blasted at Leo. He staggered to safety behind the garage wall where he became trapped.

He spent several hours in the same spot in severe pain as Maureen tried to entice him out of his hiding. She said that it was about 8:15pm on Saturday night after she had just fed her cat with some treats when he was shot. They were outside at the aviary with her dog a King Charles spaniel whose name is Charlie.

Leo walked along the wall onto the garage. Mrs Newman noticed immediately that Leo had been shot. She spent a long time trying to reach him behind the garage before succeeding and immeediately rushed him to the local veterinarian. Leo was obviously in shock. He immediately underwent an eight hour operation during which he lost his right eye and part of his paw. His left ear was also injured by the blast.

At the time he was placed on painkillers and spent a long time at home recovering and getting over his anxiety. Mrs Newman is convinced that the shot was deliberately aimed at her cat and that it was not an accident. The police investigated but this happened in 2017 so I don't think anything actually came out of the investigation.

It appears to be a drive-by shooting carried out for the fun of it on an innocent but beautiful Maine Coon cat who was minding his own business. Just another example of casual animal cruelty which this time happened to occur in Belfast, Northern Ireland but it could have been anywhere else. Although perhaps there were more guns that usual floating around the urban environment in Northern Ireland because of the past troubles.

Location: Main St, Maghera BT46 5AE, UK

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