Yesterday I was at Hillside SPCA located in Schuylkill County. As I was talking to the Executive Director, Barbara Umlauf, she told how upset she and her staff were about yesterday’s sentencing of Patrick Canfield (pictured). Canfield shot his neighbor’s cat, Oscar, August 5th, 2010 with a crossbow.
Canfield states that he shot Oscar after he became aggressive, claiming Oscar was hissing and pawing at him. Canfield pled guilty on June 6, 2011 instead of allowing the case going to trial.
Oscar survived because no vital organs were hit as I was told yesterday. Oscar did need care estimated to be $1,000.00 which Canfield is ordered to pay.
Canfield’s sentence includes six months probation and the most difficult part to understand by many is doing 150 hours of community service divided evenly between Hillside SPCA and the Ruth Steinert Memorial Animal Shelter near Minersville.
Neither shelter was contacted before the judge handed down this sentence. I can tell you firsthand that Hillside is extremely upset over this sentence. The shelter does not want him there. And they have made their opinions known to the media. Assistant Director, Trish Moyer says ” I’m not going to feel comfortable allowing him to be around any of our dogs or any our cats, so he’s not welcome here at the shelter”. Those sentiments are shared by Barb and the rest of the staff as well. Same goes for the Ruth Steinert shelter.
Canfield claims he doesn’t hate animals. Maybe so, but to shoot a cat with crossbow is totally irrational and obviously cruel to a cat that isn’t threatening your life.
I’ve been bitten by a cat. I DO know the force of a cat’s bite. And it hurts. Oscar never bit Canfield but he felt threatened enough by hissing and pawing to shoot him with the force of a crossbow. Even though the cat bite I endured landed me in the ER and caused me alot of pain, not once did I want that cat destroyed or want to hurt it.
Hillside made it perfectly clear to me that Canfield will have to be supervised at all times. They can’t risk a known animal abuser to be around animals by himself. Same goes for Ruth Steinert shelter. This will take time and energy that can utilized more efficiently in other areas for shelter workers. The Hillside staff already works hard for the 75 dogs and 200 cats they have.
Sadly, Oscar has now developed cancerous tumors around his spine which are inoperable.
Do you think this sentence is fair? If you worked at one of these shelters, would you be willing to work side-by-side with Canfield?