Cats have been found shot with blow darts and mutilated near a US Army barracks in Hawaii, according to an animal-welfare organisation. KAT Charities founder Dr Karen Tyson told Honolulu television station KHON her organisation was worried troops stationed at the Schofield Army Barracks in Hawaii could be linked to the animal abuse. “It is our understanding that a group of soldiers … purchased blow dart guns while on a recent training mission to Indonesia and brought them home to Hawaii,” she said. Aloha Affordable Veterinary Services confirmed to KHON they had recently treated a cat named Katness for a dart wound to her neck. Tyson said she has seen other felines with similar wounds and claimed a pair of cats were found disembowelled near a fast-food restaurant near the army base. She said it was apparent those animals had been “purposefully mutilated” and not injured in an accident. A garrison spokesman told The New York Daily News on Thursday that the army had heard of cats being abused and that an investigation was under way. “This type of behaviour is not tolerated on the installation and is not in keeping with our army values,” the statement said. According to Tyson, who worries the torturing of cats will continue, military police had been made aware of the issue. Soldiers convicted of animal cruelty can be dishonourably discharged as well as facing fines and incarceration. The Wahiawa, Hawaii-based unit at the centre of the controversy calls itself “The Wolfhounds”. The Korea Herald reported in late May that at least 10 feral cats had been killed near the Osan Air Base in South Korea by US service members. A television station there reportedly broadcast what appears to be military personnel firing an air gun at a caged cat in the Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Air Force personnel reportedly said animals that were roaming onto the base, which includes aerial runways, are handled “according to the rules”.