Breaking: PETA Issues Warning After Two Cats Shot in West Deptford (VIDEO)

For Immediate Release:
October 30, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

After two cats were recently found with gunshot wounds in separate incidents just days apart in West Deptford, PETA is rushing an urgent alert to local airwaves, warning people to keep cats safe by keeping them indoors. Last week, a cat named Bast was shot on Ford Avenue, shattering his front leg so severely that it had to be amputated, while another cat, Buttons, was found the next day near Crown Point Road and Church Street with severe facial injuries that required the removal of an eye. Police have said both cats’ injuries were consistent with a small-caliber gun or pellet gun.

PETA’s video spot, which features It actor Jaeden Martell, shows a series of sinister characters reaching for a can of gasoline, a golf club, poison, and a shotgun—followed by the warning, “Outdoor cats don’t go missing by themselves.”

“One cat’s leg was shattered by a gunshot and another was shot in the face, a horrifying reminder of the many ways that cats left outside can suffer,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on all cat guardians not to wait until tragedy strikes and to keep them indoors, safe from cruel people, predators, speeding cars, and the many other dangers of the outdoor world.”

Anyone with information about the West Deptford shootings should contact the West Deptford Police Department at 856-853-4599 or Det. Goggin at [email protected].

PETA notes that cats kept indoors can be kept physically and mentally stimulated with a view of the outdoors, toys, climbing structures, scratching posts, cat TV, and other enrichment. PETA offers a catio-building guide as well as a “cat guardian’s bible” written by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk that’s full of tips and available for purchase here.

PETA’s video series has run in Blaine, Minnesota, where alandlord reportedly poisoned cats whom a tenant was feeding; Dayton, Ohio, where a kitten was set on fire; Los Angeles, where a man is accused of shooting multiple homeless cats with a crossbow; and Pequea Township, Pennsylvania, where a cat was shot in the head with a metal arrow. Many more cases are detailed on PETA’s website.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.