I didn’t want April to end without reminding you it is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. My human and I had a stark reminder about how important this issue is when, earlier this month, a fellow Instagram cat and his family were brutally assaulted in their neighborhood. The cat, Ponzu, died.
The Assault
The case is ongoing, and my human doesn’t have the heart to hunt down any video of the event (at least some of which has been turned into the police). But the basic story is that Ponzu was out in the neighborhood with his family, which included his human, Chanan, her boyfriend, and his other animal family members: a parrot named Mango and dog, Tofu. Ponzu was fully leashed trained and friendly. During the assault, which resulted in fatal injuries to Ponzo, Mango was also punched (yes, somebody punched a parrot!), the terrified Tofu’s tail got pulled, Chanan was assaulted by three vicious women, and her boyfriend was sucker punched and had to have surgery on his nose. One woman so far has been arrested.
There is currently a GoFundMe to help pay for the legal battle. But none of this will bring Ponzu back, or help Chanan, Mango and Tofu heal from their trauma.
Ponzu’s Story Hits Home
Ponzu’s story really upset my human because he and I have so much in common. We’re both popular internet cats who love to travel, walk on a leash, and enjoy human interaction. We have lots of fans and friends. But not everyone likes cats (or animals in general), and there are some awful people out there. My human is always watching out for me and does everything she can to keep me safe, short of keeping me in a bubble (which would make me unhappy). This kind of attack could happen to anyone. Which is why we must work to overcome animal cruelty.
What Can We Do to Stop Animal Cruelty?
Here are a few ways you can make a difference:
- Check the the animal cruelty laws in your area. For the most part, animals are considered personal property, like your furniture or other inanimate belongings. That is slowly starting to change in the U.S., and in the courts, animals are starting to be considered conscious beings whose lives matter. It’s starting with custody battles and cruelty cases. But more always needs to be done. Find out what can be done to improve your local animal cruelty laws. We need stronger penalties everywhere.
- Help local animals. Report cruelty when you see it to the authorities. Give aid to animals in need. Support spaying and neutering of community cats. Yes, the latter is important in the fight against animal cruelty. Community cats are often targeted by mean people, and controlling colonies makes for fewer cats, and they will be less of a “nuisance” to people who dislike cats.
- Teach children to be kind to all animals. The person who is allegedly responsible for Ponzu’s death is a 12-year-old child. Respect for animal and human life should be the most important lessons for children, and taught to them from the start. Sadly, there are a lot of awful people out there who have kids and don’t teach them this. Be an example in kindness.
Orange is the color to raise awareness about animal cruelty, so my backdrop today is orange. But please, promote kindness to animals every day, no matter the month or color. It’s especially important when there is so much hatred in the world already.
Other posts you’ll enjoy:
- Cats and Smoking Don’t Mix… Plus Tips for Smokers
- How People Who Cared Saved the Feral Cats of Anaheim
- Kitty Math and How It Rescues Cats
2021 Somali Cat Wall Calendar, Starring Summer
See all of Summer’s merch at her her Zazzle Designercat Shop
Nice job raising awareness. I shared about Ponzu after someone on Next Door shared it with me. It was actually an anti-Asian attack although it started when the kid tripped over the cat’s leash. It’s nice that there’s video but bystanders should be using their phones to call 911 and not take video.
Yesterday there was another instance where garbagemen found a 10-wk-old kitten tied in a garbage bag minutes before the bag was set to go into the hopper. Little Hopper is doing well.
There must be harsher penalties.
Just horrible!
Thank you for raising awareness x
Poor Ponzu losing his life like that! That is SO wrong on every level. And the trauma his family suffered is outrageous.
Not sure if you remember but there were people here who used to try to scare Purrince Siddhartha Henry ‘just for the fun of it!’ No one did a damn thing to help me.
4 weeks b4 P SH had to be put to sleep we were walking out back. Melinda & Deb were at picnic table & asked for us to come over. I picked P SH up & walked to table & the nasty guy who was on his own patio & had NO reason to be an a$$ banged his metal patio furniture…EXIT one terrified Burmese ‘death rolling’ out of his t-shirt/walking vest & my arms! And bolting out of the backyard. I dropped everything & ran for common room door & Deb let me in & I ran thru room out front door screaming at top of my lungs…thankfully I left condo on patio open & PSH was in there when I made it to patio. And then I had a seizure. Summer & Miss J that was the last time we walked in backyard!!! P SH was terrorized as was I. And that incident led to his untimely death Aug, 28th, 2018. I can’t stand the sight of that man to this day. I will NEVER teach another cat to walk in harness again…not here….
Thank you for letting me share.
((hugs)) Sherri-Ellen & **purrss** BellaDharma
This horrible story absolutely sank my heart when I read about it several days ago. I understand that now an arrest has been made and I hope there will be more arrests. I agree that educating children is important and maybe school should teach more about kindness to animals, since it appears that sometimes parents aren’t doing that.
Animal cruelty stories absolutely break our hearts…..and make us mad. No excuse for that behavior at all and it should be PUNISHED appropriately. If you hurt, maim or kill ANYTHING you should be punished. Period.
Hugs, Teddy
This is a sire subject for me. I become irate at the mere thought of any cruelty to animals. Ive put myself in harm’s way to stop things that I’ve seen. Even leaving dogs in cars alone on sunny days. I will stand by the car and wait for the owner. They don’t show in 30 minutes, I call the police. It makes me physically and emotionally sick about any neglect it cruelty
This is so heartbreaking We demand Justice for Ponzu and all animals that suffer from cruelty.
Such a heart-breaking story.
I was not familiar with Ponzu so I looked up a picture, what a beautiful kitty.
Rest In Peace sweet Ponzu.
My sympathy goes out to the family, May their physical and emotional wounds heal quickly.
Utterly heartbreaking. Out of caution, I wouldn’t take my beloved animals out into some of these areas. The animals are more civilized than the people in many cases.
My heart goes out to Angel Ponzu’s family.
Here’s hoping that the police are able to catch and prosecute those bad people.
I just looked up a couple news articles about this and wish I hadn’t. How absolutely horrifying! I’ll never forget the act of cruelty on a dog I witnessed many years ago in our downtown area. It was before cell phones were in every pocket and people were rushing into stores to call the police.
That is so sad and scary Summer !
We think that the punishment for animal abusers should consist of doing to them what they did to the animals. It seems like there may have been an element of a hate crime in here directed at Ponzu’s owner as well.
We can’t add much else and have it remain appropriate for a family blog. Please – everybody – stay safe.
That is completely sick. Those people should be jailed for life, and banned rom being called human.
Purrs,
Tama and Benny
That is terrible! I hope those people are brought to justice.
We’re so upset to hear about this and we know cruelty happens too often. The kitten, Oliver, that we mentioned in Olivia’s post was a victim of horrible cruelty. We didn’t go into detail about that because it’s so upsetting, but everybody does need to be reminded now and then to watch for this sort of thing. There’s always a chance of preventing one of these horrible incidents if you’re aware and watching out. Purrs for this family from all of us.
This is absolutely horrible!!! Horrible!! We hope justice prevails. We were so sad when we read this on Instagram. Thank you for bringing attention to this important matter.
That’s awful. We cannot understand how some people can be cruel and vicious like this. You’re right, teaching children to respect animals is very important. Purrs
That is awful.
I can’t even read this whole post after I read Ponzu died. People that abuse animals deserve to be tortured.
This makes mom have tears in her eyes. I will see what our animal cruelty laws are here in my area. And a question. I happened by accident while looking at cat videos on uTube yesterday a very thinly disguised animal extreme cruelty with a sprightly male voice narrating a horrible story with an obviously abused cat. The story was called Ugly Cat or something like that. I wonder if trying to report t that to uTube would do any good and how to go about it. I can’t get the horror out of my mind.
Now the is MY opinion that is is thinly disguised animal cruelty. I stand by that but it is my opinion.
There is never an excuse for that kind of thing and our Dad would just like 5 minutes with whoever did it.
Horrible stories. It’s hard to understand people who are so filled
with hate that they take it out on innocents. I hope the perpetrators
here are punished.
They are never punished significantly enough.
What a horrible and sad story, Summer! Why would anyone want to attack an animal like this?? Thanks for reminding us all about how to end such cruelty.
We were very sad when we read Ponzu’s story. We don’t understand why things like that happen.
The Florida Furkids
Thank you for this post Summer, we saw a little about Ponzu’s tragic death on FB and are so sorry for the entire family. Mom saw a small clip of the attack and she said it looked like the entire family was swarmed and brutally attacked by a gang of mean people. She had also heard that the police are refusing to investigate the matter, and hope this is not true. These people should be prosecuted and spend time in jail. It’s very scary to think we could be attacked for no reason, and that the attack could be so vicious we die from it.
Hearing/Reading stories like this makes me so very sad. It is so senseless and I really cannot tolerate any kind of cruelty to animals. Education has to start at home. This is a difficult blog, but a good reminder that there are mean people out there and we all need to step up and do our part to eliminate animal cruelty.
What a sad and disturbing story! We often think cruelty happens in the home.
To be attacked outside with your family is scary!
Yes, the laws need to be stronger and animals need more protection whether they are pets
,working animals or farm animals!
Purrs, Julie