By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
WHEN Lisa Hansen let her Scottish Fold cat outside her Berwick home for 20 minutes, she didn’t expect him to return soaked and dripping in engine oil.
In a shocking case of animal cruelty – following the sickening butchering of two kangaroos and an unborn joey in Lysterfield South last month – Ms Hansen said she was “frightened”.
“I was totally devastated, it was very distressing and upsetting,” Ms Hansen said.
“Just the thought that we are living near someone who could deliberately hurt such a vulnerable animal.”
One year old Migs the cat was drenched in engine oil within a 20 minute window on Wednesday 23 March.
Vets at the Animal Emergency Centre in Hallam believe he was picked up and dunked.
“I rushed him to the emergency department, my skin was burning from touching him so you can imagine what it was doing to his skin,” Ms Hansen said.
“The vets said they had seen it before and that there was no way he could have rolled in it to have been covered that badly.”
The oil was so thick that Migs was bathed six times, before vets were forced to sedate and shave him.
“They had him in a humidicrib and he had to stay in overnight because they were concerned about the fumes and if he had digested any which could cause liver and respiratory damage,” Ms Hansen said.
The incident was reported as deliberate by vets at the centre.
Vets advised Ms Hansen that her beloved Scottish Fold had been picked up and dipped in the oil, due to the precise point under his armpits.
Ms Hansen was quick to report the distressing cruelty to her local police station, who told her they were “shocked”.
“The police officer was interested because our area is so quiet; they said we just don’t hear a peep out of your area.”
Since the torturing and possible attempted killing, Ms Hansen has taken to her “quiet” street to alert locals.
“I went door knocking and everyone we saw, apart from our direct neighbours, didn’t even know we had two cats and two dogs,” Ms Hansen said.
It is routine for Ms Hansen to let her dogs and Migs outside at 8.45pm each night.
And this was the first time Ms Hansen had experienced animal cruelty in a street she has lived in for 25 years.
“Cats shouldn’t be in neighbours’ yards anyway but that doesn’t excuse animal cruelty, we do follow council rules and we are doing our best,” Ms Hansen said.
“I take responsibility for my cat, they shouldn’t be on other people’s property but neighbours should come and talk to us, animal cruelty is never acceptable.
“I hope it’s not the first of more to come.”
The heartless act of animal cruelty left Ms Hansen with a $600 vet bill and a much more timid cat.
“We are looking at getting a cat run and Migs is a lot clingier,” she said.
“It’s scary to think someone who lives in the area has done this because he was out for such a short time, it had to have happened somewhere local, by someone local.”
