Cat's injuries prove fatal after it was thrown onto Halloween bonfire
A Blanchardstown man whose 20-year-old companion was thrown onto a bonfire is urging pet owners to keep animals indoors over Halloween weekend.
By Ethan Mitchell ·
Martin, a Blanchardstown resident, said his cat Snowy was put down by the DSPCA on the Monday after Halloween, one day after the family visited him in the organization's care and found him burned across his body. Martin and his family first met Snowy about 20 years ago, when the cat began showing up at their home for food and water. The family eventually realized the cat had stayed. "He'd be hanging out the back garden," Martin recalled on Lunchtime Live, adding that his children would rub the cat and he would hug him. He described Snowy as a friendly cat who liked meeting people and believed they all had a "decent heart." The family had traveled to Galway the weekend before Halloween to visit the wife's mother. When they returned on the Sunday night, a neighbor told them Snowy had not been seen for days and appeared on the RTÉ News. Martin searched the RTÉ news report online and saw coverage of a cat found in severe pain in Blanchardstown. He called the DSPCA, which confirmed it had the cat, and the family went to see him. Martin found Snowy in a cage, burned and still trying to meow. "I was heartbroken," he said. The DSPCA attempted to nurse Snowy back to health, but the cat struggled to breathe and swallow, and the organization put him down the next day. Martin said Snowy's kindness led to what happened to him and asked pet owners to watch their animals closely through the Halloween period. "A message to anyone that has any type of pet, keep them in," he said. "Keep them in over the weekend, don't let them out because you don't know what type of person will just grab them, throw them in, thinking it's a laugh, not realizing that."
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