Animal lover calls for an end to abuse

Jill Adams, from Tandragee, was speaking this week as news broke that yet another cat was killed when it was shot twice by a pellet gun in Lisburn.

Enraged by last weeks incident, Jill wanted to remind animal lovers that action can be taken.

Her rare exotic award winning Persian, Clodagh was killed by a drunken teen who broke into her garden and dropped a breeze block on her cat.

The teenager was convicted, and handed a three year suspended sentence, the first case of its kind ever taken by the Public Prosecution Service.

Aaron McClelland, was 18 at the time, and found guilty of two charges one of criminal damage to a property and the other criminal damage to a cat that resulted in its death.

Jill, who bought her much loved cat from Scotland, recalled the incident.

She heard a crash in her garden one morning, and saw her neighbour climbing the fence.

When Jill ran out she found Clodagh with her leg ‘half off, its stomach hanging out and there was blood everywhere.’

“Seeing Clodagh suffer in the way and having her die on my daughter’s 14th birthday just made me determined to get justice,” said Jill.

The family was forced to leave their home and Jill had to give evidence against her cats attacker.

“Cats have long been viewed as less important than dogs but I wanted my case to send out a message that you can’t be cruel to cats and get away with it,” said Jill.

“I feel attacks to cats are still not taken seriously. How many more have to suffer before cat cruelty is taken seriously?

“I don’t want to read about another animal feline suffering like that again.

“When my cat died the attitude was very much get over it. It’s only a cat. When I reported it, I had to fight tooth and nail to get the attacker convicted.

“Clodaghs attacker never showed remorse, no apology, no reason why he did it, nothing.”

She claimed at the time her feline was ‘murdered’ 33 other cats went missing in the area.

”Why is this still happening?” Jill asked. “People’s attituide must change. I lost my cat. She was family.”

Jill who often showed her Persian cat and so heart broken was she that she gave all but two of her 17 cats away.

She later started a petition calling for an end to cat abuse and a change to the law.