A clip posted on Facebook of two young men delighting in taking pot-shots at a cat shows the sad reality of a Portugal that is 150 years behind developed countries, animal association AMOVER (Movimento Movido a 4 Patas) has declared.
Stressing that it will be suing the two men involved, AMOVER’s founder Mafalda Campos said it shows how much is wrong in Portugal to find two people “who are not children” with nothing better to do than shoot at defenceless animals.
The sickening clip shows a featureless upper-floor bedroom from which two young men with at least one paintball-type rifle take shots at a white cat, sitting on a wall below.
The men’s laughter and cries of delight as “André kills a cat” highlights Campos’ concerns that these people are truly idiotic.
“It’s worrying,” Campos stressed, as these young people are “representative of the Portuguese reality”: youths who think nothing of causing pain and suffering to animals simply because they have nothing else especially to do.
One of the men in the clip is wearing camouflage-type jeans and an army-style sweater. Perhaps a tough-guy when not taking pot-shots at cats?
The clip ends with the cat hit at least once, and shown taking refuge.
It is not known how the story ‘ends’, or indeed whether the animal has survived.
As the clip fades out, the cat is immobile on the roof of an outbuilding.
According to Correio da Manhã this morning, there has been no official complaint but GNR police are investigating.
Since the introduction last year of new animal protection legislation, the GNR has received more than 1,200 complaints over animal cruelty.
