A colony of stray cats living behind a gas station in Erin, Tennessee, was targeted with a large blowgun, leaving one cat dead and a kitten badly wounded with a dart driven completely through her torso. Erin Police have identified three people of interest in the case and say charges are pending, though officials have released no further details about who they are or what led investigators to them.
The kitten was found hiding beneath a storage container at the Honeysuckle Exxon in Erin, according to WKRN News 2. A staff member with Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue rescued her and rushed her for a CT scan and emergency surgery. A second cat was found dead at the same Exxon station, and the rescue group says it received reports of both the dead cat and the injured kitten on a Saturday night.
Rescue officials say both cats appeared to have been shot with darts from a large blowgun. The station's report describes a small colony of cats that lived in the woods behind the Exxon and would come down to be fed; nine cats reportedly remained there. According to the animal rescue group, many cats were allegedly killed in the same manner, and some of the surviving cats had parts of their fur skinned away.
Police Say Charges Are Pending
Erin Police Department, led by Chief Mark Travis Moore, has identified three people of interest in the shootings but has not said whether they are adults or juveniles, nor detailed the specific evidence tying them to the case. The department has confirmed only that charges are pending for the three individuals, leaving open questions about timing and what those charges will ultimately be.
Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue, the foster-based nonprofit that responded to the scene and is covering the kitten's medical care, is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. The Middle Tennessee organization, founded by Executive Director Lavonne Redferrin, operates entirely through volunteer fosters and relies on donations to fund emergency veterinary treatment like the kitten's CT scan and surgery, according to the group's own materials.
What Tennessee Law Allows
Houston County, where Erin serves as the county seat, has no government-run animal shelter or animal control department, according to a Facebook post describing local conditions — leaving nonprofits like Proverbs 12:10 to act as first responders for cases like this one in the roughly 1,200-person town located about 60 miles northwest of Nashville, per Wikipedia.
If prosecutors pursue felony charges, Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-14-212 defines aggravated cruelty to animals as intentionally or knowingly killing, maiming, torturing, or causing serious physical injury to a companion animal with no justifiable purpose, a Class E felony under state law, according to Justia. A conviction carries one to six years in prison, fines up to $3,000, mandatory surrender of any animals in the person's custody, and a minimum two-year ban on owning pets, per FindLaw. Lesser cruelty offenses, such as failing to provide necessary care, fall instead under Tennessee's Class A misdemeanor statute, which carries up to 11 months and 29 days in jail for a first offense, according to the Animal Legal & Historical Center.
Separately, a Tennessee law that took effect January 1 now requires courts to order mental health evaluations for anyone convicted of animal cruelty before sentencing, a measure intended to help judges assess public safety risk and treatment needs. The Erin case adds to a string of Middle Tennessee animal cruelty investigations this year, including 20 dogs rescued from a Nashville home in April, part of a wider pattern of local prosecutors pursuing felony-level charges in severe animal harm cases.
No further information has been released about the motive behind the shootings, the ages of the three people of interest, or the full extent of injuries among the colony's surviving cats. Erin Police have not said when charges might be formally filed.
