Mounties are investigating a possible case of animal cruelty in the Cowichan Valley after a family's cat was allegedly forced to take illicit drugs and abused in videos shared on Snapchat.
Sharline Haglund says her daughter was sent disturbing Snapchat videos of the family's one-year-old cat Gigi by a former friend in the middle of the night Tuesday.
"[Gigi] got outside and because the people know my daughter, and probably the cat knows them, she would've went there with them or somehow ended up at their house," an emotional Haglund told CTV News Tuesday.
"It sounds like they gave her MDMA and then tried to shave her. From the post you can see that he has a razor that he's looking like he's going to shave her hair, and said he wanted to give her a mohawk or something."
A Facebook post created by a friend of Haglund's daughter's Tuesday accuses several people of taking part in the alleged acts of cruelty.
It also includes a screenshot of one of the alleged Snapchat messages, appearing to show a cat being shaved with a razor.
"Your cat loves molly," part of the caption reads, referring to the party drug also known as MDMA or ecstasy.
The Facebook post, which had been shared more than 700 times as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, also alleges the cat was thrown out of a window after it was fed drugs and shaved.
Haglund said her daughter notified her of the videos early Tuesday morning and they immediately contacted RCMP, which has launched an investigation.
Since going to investigators, Haglund said she's also heard the cat was given a "bleach bath" in the incident but is unsure what's true and what's not.
Gigi was missing for the majority of the day Tuesday, but was finally located around 7:30 p.m.
Haglund said everything the people in the video said they would do was done to the cat: she was shaved, the number 666 was written in her ear, and there appear to be bleach marks on her back.
She took the cat to the veterinarian Wednesday morning and said the family hoped to know more later in the day.
The BC SPCA says it is aware of the allegations and is assisting the RCMP investigation however it can. An RCMP update was expected Wednesday.
Animal protection officer Tina Heary says the organization is extremely concerned about the missing cat and the effect any illicit drugs could have on it.
"If it's been forcibly given some type of drugs and it's experiencing the effects of that, and it’s a cold rainy day – my understanding is it was also abandoned in an area away from its home – it's put into a very unfortunate and dangerous environment," said Heary.
Haglund said she has no idea why the former friends of her daughter would take part in the alleged acts, but that she considers it a form of cyberbullying.
No charges have been announced in the investigation. Mounties are appealing to anyone else who has information on what happened to contact them at 250-748-5522 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.