Advocates search for answers as Chandler cat colony appears to be targeted by animal abusers
CHANDLER, Ariz. - Chandler Police are investigating reports of injured and dead cats found with BB gun pellets in a neighborhood near McQueen Road and Chandler Boulevard.
It was brought to their attention by a group of advocates who care for the cats daily. These women are heartbroken over what happened.
They say they've been taking care of these cats since last year, but lately, they've been noticing something isn't right.
"It was just very heartbreaking that I'm a person that takes time out of her day to come and help these cats and then there's someone out here who is just hurting them," one of the advocates named Deanna Apodaca said.
Cats in this neighborhood have been captured, fixed, vaccinated, and released in the same area by a group of women supplying food and water to them every day.
"Over the past few months, a lot of the cats that we've rescued, we've noticed they've had BBs in them or some sort of pellets," Apodaca said.
Right before Christmas, they had to bury some cats after finding them dead from their injuries.
"A lot of the residents here know us and they know we feed these cats. So they came up to us with some video evidence of bullet wounds. That really broke our hearts because we do care for these cats a lot," Apodaca said.
Most recently, a cat was found dragging her back legs after being healthy just days before.
"A group of amazing women got together, crawled under the trailer, and got her out. She is currently at the Humane Society being assessed for her injuries and hoping that can help us with the investigation," Apodaca said.
Chandler Police say they're investigating this to see if there is any evidence pointing them to a suspect.
"When somebody is abusing animals, shooting them, hurting them, causing disruption in the community, cat cycle, and in just general in our community, we need to stand up. The animals have no voice, and so we want to be able to be the voice for them," Michon Javelosa said.
Below are links for those wanting to help these advocates and the cats: