Families in Beaverdale are warned to keep a close eye on their pets after a fatal cat shooting in the neighborhood.Beaverdale resident Katie Hanson told KCCI Tuesday that she found her 4-year-old cat Remus with a pellet in his chest.She said she let the outside on 33rd Street in Beaverdale and found him barely breathing under a bush.“His body was just completely limp, and that’s when I knew that something was terribly wrong,” Hanson said.“(The pellet) had just gone right through him, around his lung area, and his insides had filled with blood,” she said. Hanson posted photos of the cat to Facebook with the message: “Pet owners beware; Your furry loved one could get a bullet through the chest and lungs full of blood like my Remus.”“I think anytime you have a situation where somebody or something like an animal is helpless and defenseless, and you see somebody do something this egregious, it does upset you,” Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said.Parizek said authorities believe the cat was killed by a pellet from an Airsoft gun or similar weapon. “It's propelled by compressed air, and that can put a lot of velocity behind that projectile,” he said.Parizek said the shooting is under investigation and that, if caught, the person responsible will likely be charged with animal abuse.

Families in Beaverdale are warned to keep a close eye on their pets after a fatal cat shooting in the neighborhood.

Beaverdale resident Katie Hanson told KCCI Tuesday that she found her 4-year-old cat Remus with a pellet in his chest.


She said she let the outside on 33rd Street in Beaverdale and found him barely breathing under a bush.

“His body was just completely limp, and that’s when I knew that something was terribly wrong,” Hanson said.

“(The pellet) had just gone right through him, around his lung area, and his insides had filled with blood,” she said.

Hanson posted photos of the cat to Facebook with the message: “Pet owners beware; Your furry loved one could get a bullet through the chest and lungs full of blood like my Remus.”

“I think anytime you have a situation where somebody or something like an animal is helpless and defenseless, and you see somebody do something this egregious, it does upset you,” Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said.

Parizek said authorities believe the cat was killed by a pellet from an Airsoft gun or similar weapon.

“It's propelled by compressed air, and that can put a lot of velocity behind that projectile,” he said.

Parizek said the shooting is under investigation and that, if caught, the person responsible will likely be charged with animal abuse.