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A man last night handed himself in to the police after a young cat was shot with a crossbow in South Auckland.
The 9-month-old male cat died yesterday afternoon despite surgery to remove the bolt, which had split one of its kidneys in two.
The injured animal had been found in the carport of a family's South Auckland home after they returned from a morning of shopping with their young child.
SPCA inspector Vicki Border said she arrived at the house to find the cat with the bolt going diagonally through the middle of its body.
"The cat was pretty near dead when I found it. It had lost a lot of blood, was in extreme shock and pain and very pale."
The cat was taken back to the SPCA where a vet, nurse and Ms Border spent more than an hour trying to save its life.
Despite the surgery going well the cat was unable to survive on its own and died soon after its life support was turned off.
Ms Border said what happened to the cat was horrific and there was no way the shooting was accidental.
"This person deliberately shot a cat with a crossbow and to me that is right up there with the worst [of what we see]."
A report about what happened to the cat and the efforts to save it aired on TV3 last night. A short time later a man walked into the Manukau police station. He was expected to return to the station with the crossbow after giving a statement about what happened.
Ms Border said charges could be laid under the Animal Welfare Act, possibly wilful ill-treatment of an animal causing death, which carries a jail term of up to three years or a $50,000 fine, or both.
