CRAWFORD COUNTY (KFSM) — A case of animal cruelty in Crawford County has some local rescue groups hoping for justice and an end to the violence.
Volunteers with Jen's Kitty Rehab said for years the cats living in a colony near Lock and Dam 13 have been cared for, but a couple of weeks ago they found six opossums and five cats broken, bleeding and shot to death.
"It was brutal. I went back home just in shock, made a Facebook post asking all my rescue friends like we need help, we need a village," said Jen's Kitty Rehab Volunteer Kimberly McCormick. "We need to band together and get down there and help these cats."
There was an outpouring of support and local rescue groups came together to help.
"First thing I did was pick up all the dead bodies because it was just horrifying to look at. They were displayed, it wasn`t just a random, that cat got run over. They were displayed in a row," said Jim Skelton with CatTails Animal Sanctuary.
After burying the dead animals, volunteers set out to rescue the remaining cats and relocate them to Cat Tails Animal Sanctuary.
Cats that were injured are now recovering and the others have been spayed and neutered.
"They're doing good. They're traumatized mentally, they are having trouble trusting humans," Skelton said. "Some of the ones that weren't injured even having trouble trusting me a little bit, but it's slowly coming around."
Rescuers say they don't know why someone would do this to defenseless creatures but they hope people will stop, and if you see something, say something.
"It's disappointing, people shouldn't do this to animals," McCormick said. "They should be ashamed of themselves. There's no reason anybody should be doing this to animals. It's awful."
Volunteers have been able to rescue 17 cats so far and said the long term goal is to rescue all the animals that are dumped here on a regular basis.
The rescue group says this a good reminder to spay and neuter your pets.