A black-and-white kitten weighing less than a pound was recently rescued from children who were using him as a ball in a cruel game of catch. He has now been adopted by his rescuer, a Pennsylvania animal shelter said.
An Erie Police Department officer responded to a call about a group of children “playing catch” with a kitten on a sidewalk, and when he arrived, he saw exactly that, the Association for Needy and Neglected Animals Shelter reported in a Sept. 3 Facebook post. The kitten was being used as a ball, with the children tossing it back and forth, until the officer intervened.
“He picked up this tiny, terrified baby and rushed him to the shelter,” where he received immediate medical attention from a veterinarian, the ANNA shelter said.
Despite the rough treatment, X-rays showed the kitten, named Oreo, had no broken bones, the shelter said, but that doesn’t mean he was in good condition.
He arrived with a bloody nose and was in shock, barely responding to what was happening around him, shelter director Ruth Thompson told McClatchy News. And he was sick.
“To make matters worse…this poor boy was suffering from an upper respiratory infection,” the post read. “This little kitten burrito was cuddled, given medication and lots of TLC.”
Oreo is estimated to be about 5 weeks old, but was “extremely” underweight, weighing in at three-quarters of a pound, Thompson said.
The officer who responded to the call monitored Oreo’s progress and then gave him a new home.
“Officer Martin stopped by a few times to check on this little baby we named Oreo. Well…on Saturday he officially decided to become Oreo’s dad AND hero!” the shelter said. “He is in the process of adopting this kitten that he actually saved from death!”
Although the circumstances were reversed for Oreo, many were outraged by what he went through, with commentators calling for punishment for the children and their parents. However, others felt that a gentler approach, a firm talking-to, might suffice.
It’s not the first time ANNA Shelter has seen something like this, Thompson says, but the details of Oreo’s case struck a chord with her.
“It makes me sick,” she said. “The fact that (those) children have no respect for life.”
She is grateful that the police in her community “take animals so seriously.”
It is not yet clear whether charges will be filed.
McClatchy contacted Erie police for more information but did not immediately receive a response.
Erie is located approximately 130 miles (209 km) north of Pittsburgh.
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