Cat caught in gin trap doing well after leg amputated

Sebastian's medical treatment has cost the SPCA more than $1000. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Tauranga pet owners are sickened by second case of feline cruelty in the city within weeks

A cat has lost its leg after being caught for days in an illegal gin trap in suburban Tauranga in a case the SPCA describes as "barbaric".

Sebastian, a ginger cat, was found in Greerton with maggot-infested wounds to its front left limb after being mangled by the trap.

His ordeal comes as the SPCA releases its annual List of Shame, which also includes the shooting of another ginger cat, TJ, in Otumoetai last month.

SPCA education officer Nicolle Smith said Sebastian was found under a house in the Coopers Ave area last week. The trap was still attached to the cat but the chain had been cut.

"We do not know whether this chain was cut before the cat was caught or after the cat was caught ," Ms Smith said.

"By the state of the wound, Sebastian had been caught in this trap for days."

Vets were forced to amputate the leg in an emergency operation.

"Due to the huge level of infection he nearly didn't make it. But he is gorgeous and, in spite of his terrifying ordeal, very friendly and is doing well just three days later."

She said it was "barbaric and horrific" that someone could have found Sebastian caught in their trap and simply cut the chain.

"You suspect it was a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'."

Sebastian was being placed in foster care and would possibly be available for adoption within two weeks.

Ms Smith estimated the cost of surgery and ongoing medical checkups would total more than $1000, and appealed to the public for donations.

The case follows that of TJ, whose shooting shocked Bay of Plenty Times readers last month and has been cited as one of the worst cases of animal abuse in the country of the past year. The cat, who belongs to the Poultney family, had to have his leg amputated after being shot at close range with a slug gun or BB gun.

Lyn Poultney said TJ's inclusion on the SPCA annual List of Shame emphasised the horrifying nature of the attack. The offender has never been caught.

"Everyone I've spoken to in the neighbourhood is disgusted and up in arms that someone could do that to one of our pets," she said. A second Tauranga incident also made the national list of 45 cruelty cases.

In May, the owner of a female dog left the animal for up to three months before seeking treatment after the animal was hit by a car, leaving it with a badly dislocated hind leg. The owner is being prosecuted by the SPCA and the case is before the court.

Among the worst cases on the list were a Gisborne man who fed five live kittens to his dog, a Pukekohe man who tore the head off a kitten in front of his family, and a Southland dog found burnt, bloodied and peeling allegedly from being doused in solvent.

Other cases included a gull tortured in a Dunedin supermarket trolley, a Whangarei cat scorched with boiling water, a rabbit swung by its ears in central Auckland and 12 ewes killed and others badly wounded on a South Canterbury farm.