An animal lover and a veterinarian are warning the public to keep a close eye on their pets after someone unloaded several cans of pepper spray onto a young cat.
Lina Vos arrived home from work Friday afternoon, expecting the usual welcome from 11month-old Whiskers, who habitually runs up excitedly to her car in their Steveston driveway.
But she knew something was off straight away when Whiskers could barely manage to walk towards her and was struggling to breathe.
"A neighbour came over to me and said that she'd picked him up and now all her face was burning and she was hot all over," said Vos.
"I knew something was wrong, everything was burning all over him and he was struggling to breathe and then my neighbour was so sick she had to go to bed early.
"Whiskers is already asthmatic, so I took him to the vet as quick as I could. He was drooling and I was very upset."
The vet who cleaned Whiskers up, Karen Zutrauen, said the cat had been pepper sprayed repeatedly. Zutrauen had to bathe the cat 16 times, and she and her staff had to wear oxygen masks to cope with the contamination.
Zutrauen gave him a shot of antibiotics and told Vos, who lives near Steveston Park, that her cat was lucky not be blinded by what she described as nothing short of an "assault."
"I've not seen anything like this in 25 years of practice," the vet told the News.
"This is very worrying and whomever did this should know that this is not only dangerous, it's also a crime.
"Whether the cat strayed onto someone's property or not, it doesn't matter, it's still a criminal offence."
Zutrauen said the number of times she had to clean Whiskers indicates that more than one can of pepper spray must have been used, and that the perpetrator must have held the cat down during the attack.
Vos suspects the attack came from one of the many high school students from nearby McMath secondary, who frequent the park where Whiskers roams from time to time.
"There are a lot of kids that age who hang about at the park, but I can't believe someone would do this," she said.
"The problem is that he's too nice of a cat, he would have gone up to anyone.
"People should know that there is someone out there doing this and keep an eye out for them."
Vos said Whiskers is doing "fine" now, but she's not letting him out of her sight for the time being.
"He only gets out to the gated backyard now," she added.
"I'm still shocked and very upset about this."
Vos said police have been contacted and a file has been created in case any similar reports come in.
