Haywards Heath cat seriously injured in air rifle shooting: residents horrified after latest gun incident

Gemma Ritchie, 34, of Acre Close, said her 11-year-old cat Frank was left seriously injured on New Year’s Day.

Gemma, who lives with her partner Adam, said: “We were just having a chill afternoon. Frank had been mooching out and about around the gardens and just out on the grass behind the gardens, and he came in and we noticed he was avoiding us.”

Half an hour later they saw Frank trying to get up the stairs, limping badly, and saw that he was bleeding down his leg.

“The wound was this perfect circle,” said Gemma, who suspected at first that Frank had got into a fight with another cat.

Gemma and Adam took Frank to the New Priory Vets in Patcham who kept him overnight for X-rays. At about 8pm that evening the vets informed them that they had found a pellet.

Gemma said: “It had gone through his legs straight into his abdomen and they needed to operate to make sure nothing else had been damaged and to retrieve it. Luckily after the surgery they had found that none of his organs had actually been damaged and they got it out.”

Gemma said she was shocked by the news. “It was disgusting, it was horrendous,” she said. “It was about two days of crying. I was so angry.”

“Adam was angry too but obviously there was nothing he could do,” she said.

The couple have been in contact with police and said Frank is now healing in a small crate and on painkillers.

“He really hates being in that crate and we’re trying to give him a few hours a day out of it,” she said.

Gemma added that Frank’s vet expenses were above £5,000 but much of this was covered by insurance.

The shooting follows several similar incidents in Acre Close since 2021.

In October 2021, six-month-old kitten Fred was shot with an air rifle. Owner Dan Neve, 42, said Fred escaped with a broken leg, but he said Fred was shot again in January 2022 and had to be put down. Then he said Fred’s sister Dusty was shot in July 2022.

Dan told the Middy: “We took her to the vets. She obviously had extensive damage to her insides and she was nursed back to health. It was a £4,000 bill and the insurance luckily covered it so she’s now a house cat, she stays inside now.”

Dan said he has also been in contact with the police.

A Sussex Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we received an allegation of a cat having been shot by an air rifle in the vicinity of Acre Close, Haywards Heath, about 7pm on 1 January. We have engaged with the informant, and we understand the emotional and financial distress this may have caused.

“There are currently no further lines of enquiry, however anyone with any information about the incident is urged to report it online or call 101, quoting serial 1133 of 01/01. You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or report it online. www.crimestoppers-uk.org. The report is not being linked to any other incidents at this time.”