Cowtown cat caregivers are on alert, as an apparent “cat serial killer” targets the local outdoor cat population. 

Lisa Kowalski, a volunteer with the Community Cat Support Network and former animal control officer said that eight cats and one dog have been victims of pellet gun attacks since December of last year.

With the help of local veterinarians, three of the cats who were shot have survived. The other cats died. Six of the victims have been outdoor cats with owners.

The first three reported victims belonged to the same owner. Victim 1, a tabby, was shot in the back and had to be euthanized. Victim 2, a gray and white kitten had shrapnel in its shoulder when it died of an unrelated illness. Victim 3 was shot in the leg.

The fourth victim was a member of Kowalski’s cat colony, a dilute tortoiseshell named Baby. Baby’s injury was discovered on Dec. 16.

Kowalski said, “One of my cats [Baby] came when I [was feeding], and her face was bleeding, and she tried to eat, and she couldn’t…I thought she might have [gotten] hit by a car. I brought her to the vet, and they confirmed that she was shot, not once, but she was shot a month prior in her shoulder.”

Cameron King is the owner of Gigi, an outdoor cat that was shot with a pellet gun on Jan. 16, making her the fifth victim.

King said, “For a couple of days, she’d been kind of laying in the same spot, not really moving a lot, and she’s an outside cat who doesn’t really like to come in unless she’s wanting to get attention. She’s just kind of laying in the corner of the yard and I went and picked her up, and her right side behind her shoulder blade had a bulge sticking out in it, and it felt real hard and then I looked on the left side of her and there was an entry hole. So, I immediately called Lisa … and we took her to the…vet.”

King is 31 with two children, ages 8 and 9.

King said, “They were pretty infuriated about the situation. They couldn’t really even fathom…Gigi literally will come up to anybody… she’s going to come up and give you lovings. So, for somebody that wants to hurt a cat that is so loving…it’s definitely wrong.”

King said, “For me, it makes me more worried, not only for me and my animals, but even for my kids, because I feel like [the victims] are starting to get bigger and bigger on what they’re shooting at, and what they’re hurting … I’ve been hearing that they’re actually moving from cats up to dogs…I think it was Thursday [April 10], we actually got a phone call that somebody had found someone’s dog shot in their yard here, over in Cowtown, or not too far from Cowtown, same entry wounds.”

King said, “And the way that the person shot at the cat, I mean, they made it like they were, like they’re a hunter, basically. I mean, they’re shooting behind the shoulder blade, and they are looking to kill.”

Gigi survived the injuries she sustained from the shooting.

King said, “You know, as far as anything else is concerned, you know her ability, she’s doing great after her shot wound that she received … she’s doing pretty good nowadays. She’s still living her life like she normally does.”

The sixth victim, Titi, was a Siamese that was shot in the abdomen and found dead. The seventh victim, found March 16, was shot in the spine and had to be euthanized because it was paralyzed from the waist down.

The most recent confirmed feline victim, Flaka, will potentially have to have its leg amputated after it was shattered by a pellet. Kowalski said the owner had already lost a cat to a pellet gun attack two months prior.

Kowalski said, “My colony went from 15 to four in months. That’s not normal. I mean, granted, they live outside. They are bound by nature, hit by cars, dogs, but … that is a huge number.”

Kowalski has been one of the caregivers for Cowtown’s quasiferal cat colony for about two years. She started caring for the colony when she moved into the neighborhood and continued caring for the cats after leaving. Through CCSN, Kowalski helps trap, neuter and release (TNR) stray cats throughout Conway, Mayflower and Greenbrier.

Kowalski said, “Honestly, it’s going to come down to us walking the streets and handing out flyers and talking to the community and seeing if they know anything. Because, in reality, people don’t want the cats here.”

“But what they don’t realize is that these cats have become part of the ecosystem. If you remove these cats, more are going to come in, and they’re not going to be fixed, and then you’ve got more breeding, more kitten issues, more dead on the road, and nobody wants to see that,” she said. 

Kowalski said she has been handing over any leads to animal control and Conway PD.

CCSN is currently trying to raise money for solar cameras to monitor the cat colony. Donations can be made at ccsnar.org/help. 

Kowalski said that CCSN is also offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the prosecution of the offender or offenders of the killings.