JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Investigators in Jessamine County are trying to figure out who has been shooting neighborhood cats with darts.
Melissa Lapish said one of her cats, George, didn't come home Thursday night after playing in their yard. They looked for him over the weekend, and on Monday morning, her daughter found his body up against the home. Someone had fired a dart through his neck.
"This was uncalled for. It was not okay," Lapish said. "He's got seven kids that love him, so that was really hard for all of them,"
When Lapish reported the incident to Jessamine County Animal Care and Control, she discovered George wasn't the first cat in the neighborhood hit with a dart.
"This is the second time we have seen this here in Jessamine County," said Jessamine County Animal Care and Control director Timothy Brown. "We've been doing a couple of investigations where that was actually found in another feline in Jessamine County. We had got to a dead-end road with that investigation, but now that this has happened again, we are definitely looking at all avenues to try to get the person into custody,"
Brown said investigators have been working to get information from neighbors about any suspicious people in the area. They've also been asking around to see if anyone knows someone who has darts like these. He said he was concerned and that he thinks the laws should change.
"We are definitely worried. We're not worried just for that area, we're worried for everywhere," Brown said. "Obviously, in the state of Kentucky, our laws are not very strict on this type of behavior. Something like this, to me, it should be a felony for this type of behavior,"
Lapish said her children have been rattled by the incident.
"It's scary," she said. "My son says he doesn't feel safe living here because of that and you kind of worry - are they going to do something to kids that are on their lawn or are they going to miss and hit somebody else? How do you protect your family from that?"
Lapish said they used to see other cats in and out of her yard, but they haven't seen them lately. She worries they may have met the same fate as their beloved George.
"This was a loved family pet," Lapish said, directing her words toward whoever fired the dart. "You took him away from nine people that loved him."
