Shropshire family's shock as pet cat shot dead

X-rays revealed that Tiger the cat, belonging to the Jackson family in Ludlow, had eight individual air gun pellets in his body.

The family says it found the nine-year-old cat dead on land behind their house in Burway Close.

Nicholas Jackson said: "My wife Jenny was notified of a dead cat in a garden behind our house.

"She was horrified to find that is was Tiger, our nine-and-a-half year old cat dead, laid out full stretch in a position by the pond where he was often seen sunning himself.

"He had a small hole in his abdomen and had been sick."

Mr Jackson says he took Tiger to the nearby Marches Veterinary Surgery to be cremated, where they were told by vets that the cat had been shot.

"They said they could X-ray Tiger to confirm that he had been shot, which we agreed to do." said Mr Jackson, who also contacted West Mercia Police.

"The vet phoned with the result of the X-ray, which showed Tiger had eight individual air gun pellets in him."

Mr Jackson said it wasn't the first time Tiger had been shot at.

"We know he was shot about three to four years ago as he was not well then and we took him to the vet, who at the time said he has been shot but that it would be more traumatic to remove the pellet than leave it alone," he said.

"He seemed to make a full recovery."

Mr Jackson said the family is distraught as Tiger had been part of the family for a long time.

He said: "Tiger was six months younger than my ten year old son Ben, so you can imagine how upsetting this is, having gown up with Tiger.

"It is difficult to comprehend why anyone would do such a thing.

"Looking at the RSPCA website some 800 cases of cats being shot with air guns a year are reported, probably many more go unnoticed as not everyone will have their dead cats X-rayed."

Now the family says it wants to spread the word to get more people to report any similar incidents.