Cat Shot With Blowgun Dart In El Reno

Police in El Reno are looking for the person who shot a cat with a blowgun dart. The cat will be OK, thanks to a caring neighbor. But she fears there will be other attacks. 

The cat was found at Lake El Reno with a sharp, 5-inch dart in his shoulder. The tip has two razor sharp blades. 

Diane Cowan found the cat with the dart and spent two weeks trying to catch him to help him. She’s been feeding a clowder of cats here at Lake El Reno for a couple of years now. 

“I felt bad for them being out here. Obviously, somebody dumped them. And it started with just a sandwich, a piece here and there. Next thing you knew I had a bag of cat food in the van,” Cowan said.

Cowan has gotten to know the cats over the years and was shocked to see this one, that she calls gray baby, with this dart through his shoulder. 

“I was just totally devastated. How someone could hurt such a sweet baby like that,” she said. “It went in at the top of the shoulder…just the tip was sticking out through the armpit. And he couldn’t hardly walk. His front arm was infected, swollen.”

Back in May, News 9 reported several geese at Lake El Reno and a nearby cow had been hit with similar darts. 

Police said that’s not just illegal; it’s cruel.

“It’s uncalled for. There’s no reason for it. It’s really really poor judgement on whoever is doing it,” Major Kirk Dickerson with the El Reno Police Department said.

Investigators are trying to figure out whether the same person is responsible for all the incidents. 

Cowan suspects it is.

“It’s very disheartening to think that there’s someone out there this long shooting innocent animals. All of the animals. None of them deserve that,” Cowan said.