Posted on 12/23/2008 9:54:37 PM PST by MovementConservative
PRAIRIE CITY, Ore. -- An elderly couple accused of trapping their neighbor's cat can avoid a trial if they write a letter of apology and pay a $177 veterinary bill.
But Vera and Dorrance "Smokey" Wilborn don't seem ready to perform either task, the East Oregonian newspaper reported.
The Wilborns say cats have long been a nuisance in their Prairie City neighborhood. To deal with the problem, they set a trap in their carport last spring.
The cat's owner, Tina Willet, called Oregon State Police on May 28 to report that she had to rescue her cat named "Spook." She said Spook hadn't returned that night, so she went searching until she heard cries coming from the Wilborns' carport. Unable to open the trap, Willet took the cat and the device back home.
The Wilborns were charged with theft of a companion animal. The case was headed to trial this month before District Attorney Ryan Joslin of Grant County had the case dismissed by the justice of the peace.
Joslin told he Wilborns' court-appointed attorneys that he could refile the charges unless the Wilborns pay the vet bill, stop trapping cats and write a letter of apology to the Willets.
The Wilborns' court-appointed attorneys, however, said they had already rejected those demands in earlier court proceedings. "I'm ready for trial," said Markku Sario, who represents 87-year-old Vera.
Smokey Wilborn, 83, is also against the settlement: "That cat still comes up here."
Meanwhile, Willet's also not thrilled with the possible outcome.
Though she doesn't believe the Wilborns should do jail time, she thinks a fine would be appropriate. And she says animal cruelty would have been the proper charge -- not theft.
She noted that other cats have disappeared in recent years, and wants assurances the Wilborns will stop trapping.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
What do you mean? I am the police!!! But dont despair, we dont waste them, they are given to the Oriental Restaurant.
Then report yourself...we need to get cops like that off the street.
Laws are different in different places. When I bought a house, I made sure the local laws allowed cats to roam free. As long as they’re fixed, rabies-shotted, and wear a bell to alert birds, they don’t do anyone any harm. They don’t gather into violent packs the way dogs do, and they don’t poop in the middle of sidewalks. They’re much happier, and much better behaved when indoors, if they’re allowed to come and go as they please (this means having a cat door, not letting them out a people door and then leaving them stuck outside when they may want food and shelter).
Cats that are allowed to go outside don’t behave that way inside. And if they’re fixed, as they always should be, they rarely spray (and a little daily pill will stop the few who do) and you can barely smell their pee anyway. Unfixed male cats are pretty awful, but then again the sort of people who would keep an unfixed male cat in the house and let it spray all over the place, and who don’t keep the litter box clean and thus drive the cat to relieve itself all over the house, are the sort of people who are likely to do a lot interior destruction themselves (and allow their children to do the same, if they have children).
I’m renovating an apartment right now to use as a rental, and will allow pets. I’m having Tyvek put under the new carpeting/padding. It’s an old Victorian house with the original hardwood floors in good condition, and I’m making sure they stay that way, even if some renter’s incontinent old St. Bernard pees a gallon a day on the carpet. And I’m putting in a pet door and fencing the yard.
What dummies.
A 220 Conibear trap in front of a hole in a cardboard box that contains something stinky in it and the fate of spook would have never been known.
Schmeckel the Terrible is not amused.
Wow are you in for it when the cats take over!!!!
Whatever jumps out in front of your car will do less damage than whatever it is you hit when you swerve. Cats, dogs, many deer weigh less than 100 pounds. A tree or another car weighs a lot more.
Last summer our neighbors called animal control about stray cats in our neighborhood. We had a bunch of them, constantly breeding more. Animal control told them to trap some and they would come pick them up. One night they caught a raccoon. When animal control came they were going to charge the couple with illegally trapping a raccoon. Our neighbor asked the animal control officer how he would suggest they tell the raccoons not to come into the trap. He said he didn’t know if they could read and more importantly he wasn’t surte they knew English and he sure didn’t know any Raccoon language. The officer wasn’t amused, but he didn’t give them a summons, guess even he realized how stupid the suggestion was.
Outdoor cats do a lot of damage to gardens around here. They also kill protected species of birds. That is why there is a local ordinance here. Let your untagged kitty roam and it will go to the pound and eventually will be destroyed. Tagged kitties that get picked up will mean you pay a fine to get it back. If you love your pet cat you will never let it roam becsuse it could be killed by dogs or other cats or it could get hit by a car.
Actually in my jurisdiction cats are specifically mentioned as being exactly like dogs as far as the law is concerned.
My local Animal Control office actually TELLS us to trap the feral and stray cats and bring them in. I do this regularly.
If the cats are chipped the owners are notified and given a chance to claim their animal after paying a fine. (50 dollars the first time, 100 the second, 250 the third, plus a daily boarding fee.)
If they're not chipped and are deemed adoptable they are put up. If they're deemed unadoptable they're humanely put down.
I'm going through this right now. Someone actually went to the trouble to chip a feral, and then moved out of the neighborhood.
I've seen the animal using my flower beds as a litter box. Unsurprisingly both my dogs have been infected with worms.
So I trapped the animal in question and took it to Animal Control after paying, out of my own pocket, for a worm check.
Sure enough, the animal is infected with the same worms as my dogs.
Fortunately the chip is still active and Animal Control found the 'owner'.
So I got a letter from my Vet confirming they're the same worms, copies of the 500 dollars in Vet bills, and the address of this incredibly irresponsible person.
She'll be getting a nice Summons to Small Claims Court to pay for my vet bills, time off work to go to Court, mileage to and from the Vet, and anything else I can think of.
When I get done with her this little episode of bad judgement is going to set her back a couple of thousand dollars.
Keep your cat on your property.
L
I saw someone doing that here and reported them to the police (a real one). He had to go to a hearing and was publicly embarassed. Made my day. He also got into trouble for firing an air rifle into a neighbor's yard. Wonder if he now regrets all the trouble his little "fun" caused him.
The safety issue depends a lot on where you live. At my suburban home, it’s pretty safe. Only one of my cats has ever been hit by a car and he was 15 years old, slowing down, and simply refused to spend any time inside except to eat. He had a good long life, and died quickly, doing what he loved to do. Lost one last year at age 21 to a pulmonary embolism — he’d enjoyed roaming outdoors his whole life, right up to the day before he died. Another had to be put to sleep at age 19ish due to heart and liver failure, and he’d enjoyed the outdoors for the 3.5 years since I’d adopted him from a shelter.
We scatter bird seen in the driveway every day, and have a little pond/fountain most of the year, replaced by an electric-warmed water bowl in the winter. My bird population is definitely thriving. Once in a while, one of the cats gets a bird, but any of my cats who shows serious interest and aptitude for bird-catching is quickly outfitted with a loud collar-bell, which puts a stop to catchings of any but old or sick birds.
Yes they do.
You had a cat hit by a car and you still think it is a good idea to let them roam? Disgusting.
Oh Please......get a life.
Well..many laws like many people are warped and outdated....
It's unbelievable the diseases that BIRDS BRING TO YOUR BACK YARD
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