One of the cats found fatally shot in Tamarac [Courtesy of Hope Gold].
By Kevin Deutsch
Detectives are looking for one or more cat killers after a number of felines and other animals were found fatally shot in a Tamarac parking lot earlier this month.
Three cats, including a kitten, were fatally shot with BB pellets, four other cats were shot with pellets and injured, and an iguana and two raccoons were shot and killed, one of them with a real bullet, rescuers said. The dead and injured animals were discovered in a parking lot located behind a shopping plaza at 6931 NW 88th Ave., where cat lovers feed a colony of felines.
According to BSO, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit is actively investigating the incidents.
Hope Gold, a cat rescuer, transporter, adopter, and caregiver who founded the nonprofit Castaways Animal Rescue Effort, said the first of the animal abuse crimes was discovered about a week and a half ago. A woman who feeds the cat colony called Gold told her she’d discovered a mother and her kitten shot dead.
An X-ray shows two cats that were found fatally shot and facing one another in a Tamarac parking lot. The mother cat, left, was found with a BB gun pellet in her chin. The kitten was shot twice in its skull [Courtesy of Hope Gold].
Gold arrived and found the dead cats facing each other, both with BB pellet wounds. Gold knew from past abuses that law enforcement would need proof of the crimes, so she brought the cats to BluePearl Pet Hospital for X-rays.
“They confirmed that the baby was shot point-blank in the skull twice, and the mommy … had a BB under her chin,” Gold said.
A short time later, people who feed cats at the colony found another dead cat. X-rays confirmed the cat had been shot with BB pellets multiple times in the spine, Gold said.
Cats were not the only animals targeted in the parking lot: An adult raccoon was found fatally shot in the head with a real bullet, a baby raccoon was fatally shot with a BB pellet, and an iguana was fatally shot with a BB pellet, according to Gold.
Another cat was shot in the mouth but survived, Gold said, making it difficult for him to eat. Another cat was shot in the leg and survived. Gold said rescuers are still trying to trap him and get him care.
One of the cats found fatally shot in Tamarac [Courtesy of Hope Gold].
Still, another cat was shot in his eye. Gold trapped him and brought him to the veterinarian on Dec. 26, where he had the injured eye removed.
Another cat was shot in the leg and was placed in foster care, Gold said.
Seven cats in the colony are still roaming the area. Gold said rescuers want to trap and relocate them to a sanctuary in Ocala.
“We need places for them to stay while they’re getting tested for diseases and updated for vaccines before they can be transported,” Gold said.
“This is animal abuse … This is a sick person,” she said of the animal killer or killers. “These are innocent animals.”
One of the cats found fatally shot in Tamarac [Courtesy of Hope Gold].
Anyone with information about the animal shootings is asked to call BSO Detective Tenika Hylton at 954-321-4240 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
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