--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
Posted on 03/14/2012 9:27:06 PM PDT by Altariel
A Harrisonburg resident says a cat's death was anything but quick and painless, after it was struck by a vehicle. Now, he wants police held responsible.
"Shocking," is how Wayne Meadows describes the way a Harrisonburg police officer killed a cat he rescued from the side of the road. He says the officer beat the cat to death with his night stick.
"I was a wreck at that point. I mean I was completely in shock. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to say," Wayne says.
Wayne said he had to call police because local vets and animal services were closed since it was late at night on Friday, November 11th. He tried to comfort the cat until the officer arrived.
They discussed what to do, and when the officer offered to put the cat out of its misery, using a night stick was the last thing Wayne expected.
"I went inside expecting a gun shot and then I heard it happening on my front porch. I heard at least 15-20 hits," Wayne says.
The officer removed the body, but he had to clean the rest.
"It was nasty to say the least. I was sick to my stomach the whole time doing it. I tried to wash it off as best as I could," Wayne says.
The officer told him to contact police because of damage to the house. There are stains and smashed siding around the porch. Wayne did contact police, but says they didn't get back to him. However, the department offered WHSV this statement saying they did receive the complaint.
"An internal investigation was conducted into this matter and appropriate action has been taken internally. In addition, the department continues to review the current procedures in handling animal complaints is to determine if any changes or modifications need to be made."
Wayne says he was so shocked to act at the time, but hopes this never happens again.
"The only thing I wished I had done differently is as soon as I saw that nightstick I would've ran out and stopped him. That's what I wished I would have done," Wayne says.
Harrisonburg police did not say whether or not they contacted Wayne after the fact. He says he has tried several times to complain, and as of Monday night, he has not heard back.
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
Despite their cute little face and bandit like markings, racoons are smart vicious little vermine that will attack and kill a cat and maim your dog and also carry rabies. I live in the country side and not the city. On more than one occasion I have killed a racoon with a well placed shot from my shotgun. I wish the animal no ill will. If by chance I do not get a clean kill I will track and kill the animal to put it out of its misery.
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
My husband wasn’t home and my dog got hold of a rabbit. I won’t get to graphic but when I saw the dog tossing the rabbit into the air I put the kids in the playroom and told them to stay there until I got back, no matter what. They hadn’t seen what was going on. I ran out and tried to save the rabbit but it was definitely to late. It even made a crying noise. My heart was broken but after getting the dog out of there I had to grab the shovel and swing hard, the poor thing was suffering and squealing. I didn’t know my own strength so I hit it a couple of more times just to be sure. This sounds horrible as I write it but there was nothing I could do and I wasn’t going to let the dog eat it or rip it apart where my kids play. I quickly
buried it in the flower garden and I told my girls I had buried a rabbit the
dog had killed. They had a little prayer for the rabbit and that was that.
Thread drift much? What’s the war on drugs got to do with this?
LOL, and a witty Viking nonetheless.
Wayne Meadows sounds like a jackass pansy. Who the hell calls the police for a cat? This guy sounds like the type that waits for his grandmother’s social security check every month.
Coons are nasty predators, they kill just for the pleasure of it as one got into my chicken coop, killed and ate one and killed 1/2 dozen more just for fun, chewed up the leg of a guinea. I either shot them or drown them in the live traps I caught them in...I found a decapitated wild rabbit behind my bay and the body over by the barn...didn’t eat it, just killed it...they decapitate when they kill...carry rabies, and if caught in a live trap will hiss, spit and grown at you unti they meet a bullet...nasty piece of work and will decimate your rows of corn in the garden...the only good coon is a dead coon..
You did not have a firearm on your person that you were trained to use under appropriate circumstances.
An officer does.
You didn’t have a more human method on your person and elected not to use it. You selected the most humane method available to you and dispatched the rabbit quickly.
That is the difference.
I didn’t say that the man who called the police did all he could.
I said that the officer had a more humane option for executing the cat and elected not to use it.
You were brave and appropriate in numerous ways. As horrible as it was, you did good. Only other thing you can do now is, if you think you live in an area where this might be repeated, investigate more humane ways to kill a small animal and get whatever tools you need to do it (whether pistol, rifle, shotgun, etc.) But under the circumstances, you did what you had to do - and you protected your children's psyches. As well, given the number of animals that die each day, how many get prayed over? So there's that, too.
When one has a more instantaneously lethal means of dispatching a cat and chooses not to use it, it reflects on the person who resorts to using the less lethal instrument.
Clearly, the cat was not dispatched at the first beating and perhaps it may have attempted to get away from the officer: “The officer told him to contact police because of damage to the house. There are stains and smashed siding around the porch. “
The witness describes the incident happening “on the porch”—where he apparently left the cat.
How to account for the smashed siding? Either the officer has incredibly poor aim that his blows rained down upon the siding, not the cat, so that the cat suffered through *indirect* blows, or the cat had enough strength/energy/will to live that it tried (futilely) to get away from the officer.
Maybe he should’ve put it in a live trap and drowned it.
The police very often seem recently to be getting their jollies killing dogs and cats.
Hostile-aggressive Syndrome?
Another example of why calling the police to your home is simply insane, unless your life is in danger (and then you better be sure) or to get the dead body out of your house from your use of deadly force to protect yourself?
My dad, who was the head park ranger at a major metro-park in S.E. Michigan would do just that to sick raccoons he would see wandering the park in the daytime. He's even had to put deer down that he discovered caught in fencing in the back countryside of the park.......
The thought of beating that injured cat to death with a night stick makes me sick too.......
Several years ago, a cop “put a squirrel out of misery with a bullet”...ricochet killed a five year old child.
Maybe he should’ve put it in a live trap and drowned it.
...maybe its humane, but as a young teen, I watched as my uncle put a trapped skunk in the tub of water to drown it and that poor skunk fought like hell to get out and avoid dying! Can still see his nose and claws from the little glass window in the back of the trap. Maybe its the most humane but the fight for life kind of shook me. I think the .22 to the head is more humane...
ymmv
My SIL had a family of them hanging around her house. One night, we decided to drop by there, but she wasn’t home. The family of raccoons greeted us. One of my kids was finishing up some chicken nuggets so we decided to toss one to them to get them distracted. It didn’t work for very long. They were aggressive and they ended up chasing us to our car. We’ve had them show up at our back door, but prior to that I never knew how hostile they could be.
My granddad in England used to drown unwanted kittens for family and neighbors. This was 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s England and there was probably no other way for your average person to do it more humanely back then. I know from my mom she said he didn’t like doing it.
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