‘Dangerous driver ran over my cat on purpose’
Beloved pet, Walter, has to be put down after car mounts kerb
A CAT has died after a driver mounted a kerb and ran him over.
Two-year-old Walter was hit on purpose, his distraught owner believes.
The pet survived the impact of the collision – at the corner of Glenmore Avenue and Park Rise, Shepshed, on Thursday – but was severely injured and was put to sleep at the weekend.
Owner Angie Wright and her family have been left heartbroken and angry.
Angie said she was in her front garden on Thursday when she saw Walter wander up the road. Later in the afternoon, a neighbour told her he had been struck by a car while sitting on the pavement near a hedge.
“She said a car came down the road in the opposite direction, bumped on to the kerb and cleaned him up, and drove off,” Angie said.
“My neighbour said there was no reason for them to have done that.”
Rushing to the scene, Angie found Walter taking refuge in a hedge in someone’s garden, and rushed him to the vet. He suffered multiple injuries, including a broken pelvis and a fracture at the bottom of his spine.
He had lost his front claws while dragging himself away from the scene.
The vet offered to operate, but there was no guarantee he would survive, and, if he did, there was little chance he would ever be able to walk or use his bladder independently again. “I didn’t want to put him through that pain,” said Angie.
“We’re heartbroken, but I’m also really angry. If he had gone into the road and someone had run him over and it was an accident, I could accept that. But it’s the fact that someone had done this deliberately.
“He wouldn’t have seen it coming. He was just licking his paw.
“We’re all heartbroken because we all loved Walter.”
At the time, Angie had not yet told her young grandchildren “because they will be heartbroken too,” she said.
Angie fears for the children’s safety with an apparently dangerous driver taking to the roads
“This week it was a cat, but next week it could be a child,” she said.
“The driver couldn’t have seen what was around that corner, and it was close to when the kids would leave school.”
The vehicle that hit Walter was described as a purple, Peugeot-like car.
Angie has told the police.
If he had gone into the road and someone had run him over and it was an accident, I could accept that
Angie Wright