Cat fanciers in New Taipei City are on the alert after a stray cat was found with a crossbow arrow embedded in its head.
A 23-year-old woman surnamed Cheng (程) said she found the injured stray on her way home on Friday last week.
After she parked her motorcycle in an alley on Siyuan Road (思源) in the city’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), she saw a black stray cat walking toward her, and it seemed in a great deal of pain.
She quickly took the cat to an animal hospital in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) which offers a 24-hour emergency service.
The woman added that she carefully removed the arrow from the cat’s head on her way to the animal hospital.
At the hospital, the veterinarian said the cat apparently had nine lives, because the arrow missed a critical part of the animal’s head.
After the cat’s wounds were disinfected, Cheng was allowed to take it home.
Though Cheng already had three strays at home, she adopted the black cat and called it “A-Yong (阿勇),” meaning “brave” in Mandarin, because the animal almost did not survive the attack.
Despite the monthly cost of caring for her cats more than NT$4,000, Cheng said she wants to keep A-yong to prevent it being mistreated again.
“I was incredibly angry when I saw what had happened to the cat. Whoever attacked it must be a freak,” Cheng said.
She said she hoped the police could catch the perpetrator to stop a similar incident recurring.
The police added that it would step up patrols in the neighborhood.
Anyone caught mistreating animals would be fined NT$3,000 under the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), Sinjhuang police added.
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