A neighborhood cat in San Jose is recovering after he was shot by a crossbow.
A neighbor noticed a cat near South King Road in east San Jose that was shot by a cross bow and posted it on Nextdoor. Allison Fluty then saw the post and decided to take the cat to the vet and paid for the bills.
The cat is now back with the family who found him, but it has raised questions around who would do something like this.
“I was shocked and I was like, oh my gosh, this cat needs to go to the vet right now,” Fluty said.
At the vet, Fluty says they removed the bolt. She said it was “about 6 inches long, and it’s extremely sharp.”
“The bolt pierced all the way thru the tail, and it was pretty high up on the tail, kind of close to the base,” Fluty said. “It actually did break one of the vertebrae in his tail.”
Fluty volunteers with nonprofit Bay Area Cats, and she noticed that in the neighborhood Huero lives in, there are many cats on the street. She’s now trapped many and is getting them fixed at Nine Lives Foundation in Redwood City before returning them. She says a few of them are Huero’s siblings.
“Today we were able to take nine of the cats that I picked up yesterday from Huero’s place to get fixed, tomorrow we’re taking a bunch more,” Fluty said.
She created an online fundraiser to cover the cost of Huero’s vet bills, but the extra money is going toward getting the other cats fixed.
“That way, there’s fewer cats being born, which is important not just because there’s people that apparently want to hurt the cats, but because it’s really dangerous for cats to be born on the street,” Fluty said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to San Jose police, but they say they don’t have a report about the incident.