Police: Scotia cat shot in eye

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ned Campbell

Mary Ann Martinec holds Gracie, the cat that was shot in the eye, at her home in Scotia on Monday.

Named after the legendary husband-and-wife comedy duo of George Burns and Gracie Allen, these 11-year-old cats have their own stories to tell.

Sibling felines George and Gracie have both survived gunshots while roaming the Fourth Street neighborhood they call home, their owners, Mary Ann and Joe Martinec, said Monday.

George was shot in the back with a pellet gun three years ago, and Gracie was shot in the head with a BB or pellet gun on July 11, their owners said. Gracie was treated for three days at Glenville Veterinary Clinic before being released the evening of July 13.

“It’s not right,” Mary Ann said. “It’s just not right that you can’t let out a cat.”

The cats have always been survivors — Mary Ann said she adopted them from the Central Veterinary Hospital in Albany after they were found outside the hospital in a box that also contained their dead mother.

George, an orange tabby, is laid-back and friendly, but Gracie lives up to the feisty reputation of her fellow calicos, Mary Ann said. Because Gracie’s not a cuddly cat and doesn’t approach strangers, Mary Ann thinks the shooter had her cornered.

“Because there’s no way,” Mary Ann said at her home Monday, holding a meowing Gracie in her arms. “She would claw you.”

Scotia police sought the public’s help with their investigation of the alleged shooting in a news release Monday. The investigation is proving difficult because the cat roams the neighborhood, so police do not know where she was shot, and the department has no leads, Chief Pete Frisoni said.

Mary Ann said she let Gracie out at around 6:30 that morning. Joe said that when he found Gracie at around 9:30 on their back porch, her whole face was bloody and her eye wouldn’t open.

“I don’t even know how she made it here, to tell you the truth,” Mary Ann said.

The crime could come with a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals because it appears to be a violent act committed for no justifiable purpose, Frisoni said. The projectile penetrated Gracie’s skull behind the eye, which likely means the gun was fired from a close range, he said. It’s also a violation to shoot a BB or pellet gun in the village.

“It is alarming to us and obviously the public, and we don’t know what the motivation is behind it,” Frisoni said. “But it’s disturbing.”

The New York State Humane Association is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the alleged shooter’s arrest. Anyone with information should contact police at 374-3110, ext. 6.

“It’s a violent act toward the animal, and the fact that the cat wasn’t dead was frankly a miracle,” said Patricia Valusek, chairwoman of the Humane Association.

The act is also “indicative of some sort of callousness on the part of the individual that did this,” she said. If the offender isn’t apprehended, punished and/or offered counseling, it could lead to “some other kind of unsocial behavior with regards to humans.”

“It’s in everybody’s interest to find and deal with the perpetrator that did this,” she said.

Valusek said she hopes the cat is kept inside in the future “because it’s dangerous out there for animals.” All cats should be kept indoors to protect them not only from people, but predators such as coyotes and diseases like rabies, she said.

Mary Ann and Joe Martinec are of a different opinion, however, and are letting their cats, five in total, roam. They also have two dogs, a golden retriever and a retriever-lab mix.

Mary Ann said she has been a bit hesitant to let the cats out since the most recent shooting, but Joe said his feelings haven’t changed and the cats should have their freedom outside.

“I count cats, and we’ve had many a word about letting the cats out,” Mary Ann said. “We can’t come to agreement, so OK, they go out, but I try to have them in during the night.”

“I agree with that,” Joe said.

Chief Frisoni declined to comment on whether cats should be allowed to roam free in the village.

“That’s for other people to debate and discuss,” he said. “My concern is with the action of injuring this cat needlessly.”

Mary Ann said Gracie is calmer now than she was before taking a pellet or BB to the head.

“She’s more reserved. She’s sleeping a lot more than she used to,” she said. “For me to hold her just a little while ago, that was amazing, because you could never, ever do that.”

The projectile is still lodged in the cat’s skull behind the eye, she said.

“It would be too much of a risk to take it out,” she said, adding that she didn’t know at first whether Gracie would be able to see at all with that eye, or if it would have to be removed.

Gracie’s peripheral vision is limited and she’s hypersensitive to bright light, Mary Ann said. She was treated with antibiotics at the animal hospital, and Mary Ann said she has been putting antibiotic ointment in the cat’s eye twice daily.

When Gracie’s brother, George, was shot three years ago, the wound was “very superficial,” Mary Ann said, and she was able to pluck the pellet out. She said she filed a report, but police did not pursue it.

She and Joe said they hope Scotia police find the person who shot Gracie and that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But Mary Ann also said she wants people to know “that there’s a change not only in our little village, but in society in general.”

“They’ll probably never find out who did it, but this was deliberate,” Joe said.

“Uncalled for,” Mary Ann said. “Totally uncalled for.”