Posted on 02/28/2005 11:01:51 AM PST by Cagey
GILLESPIE -- Authorities admit they had to resort to a Taser to subdue a cat in a manner that is making fur fly around town.
Gillespie Police Chief Rick Hearn said Thursday morning that a cat fight ended earlier this month with one cat being Tasered then shot to death by police officers.
Hearn, who said his officers’ response was appropriate given the circumstances, said the incident began at 9:12 p.m. Feb. 9 when dispatch notified his son, part-time Gillespie police officer Rob Hearn, of a cat fight at the home of George Mull.
Rob Hearn called the Mull house and was told that two cats were fighting in the Mull garage and that one appeared badly hurt. When Hearn, joined by full-time officer Kevin Raymer, went to the house, Mull told them one cat had gone up into the rafters of the garage. The cat had lost an eye and was badly mangled, Mull told police.
Police said the officers attempted to use pepper spray to get the cat down, and when that failed, they called animal control officer Jessica Spangler and told her to bring her harness pole.
The officers attempted to net the cat with the harness pole, and when that failed, used a Taser gun on the animal.
"Once the animal was brought down, Jessica told the officers that the cat was so severely injured that she ordered the officers to shoot the cat. For safety reasons, the officers took the cat outside the city limits and shot it," Chief Hearn said.
A Taser is an electronic stun device. The electricity disrupts the sensor nervous system and the motor nervous system that carries commands from the brain to muscles to control movement. The handheld device projects two darts with the potential charge of thousands of volts of electricity, which can last five seconds. The capability of the instrument has drawn widespread praise and criticism. About 100 deaths have been linked to Taser use since 2000, according to published reports.
One Gillespie resident who heard of the incident was appalled that the officers used a Taser on a small animal and that the animal control officer had ordered the animal shot rather than taken to a veterinarian for either medical treatment or humane euthanasia.
"All of this concerns me greatly," the resident told the Telegraph in a letter. "I would hope that if my cat or dogs ever got out, that animal control and Gillespie’s officers would not kill it inhumanely. Instead, I hope they would capture it and allow me the allotted time to retrieve it."
The Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act does allow, in certain circumstances, animal control personnel, animal shelter employee or law enforcement agencies to humanely kill an animal that is severely injured, diseased or suffering, in a manner that affords a painless death, said Ledy Van Kavage, senior director of legislative services for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. VanKavage said she understood the position the police took, given the cat’s condition.
Chief Hearn said he feels his officers responded appropriately given the situation and had only used the Taser when all other efforts had failed. He said the report does not mention where the second cat went or what the officers did with the dead cat, which had no city tags for identification.
"I am assuming the officers buried the cat," Hearn said. "It was unfortunate that the cat was injured so badly that Jessica felt it had no chance of surviving its injuries. We do have leash laws in Gillespie, and I hope pet owners will make sure their pets have city tags and that their pets are kept contained or on a leash so incidents like these won’t happen."
POOR CAT! My cat flips out too when you put a collar on him. This cat was really freaked out. Then they try to get it to go into a box? YEAH RIGHT! HA! Obviously no one there understood or was trained to handle a truly freaked out cat. Not the cats fault.....
THE RETURN OF PINKY. HELP!
PINKY HAS CONTROLLED MY NIGHMARES FOR YEARS, SENDING ME SCREAMING INTO THE NIGHT AT WILL.
My dad and I have running Pinky jokes and lines, and instead of using the term "going nuclear," we say "going Pinky." LOL.
What are you talking about? Re-read the context of my remarks and the entire dialogue between me and the other poster. They obviously "got" it.
BTW, I've never done that, but I had one I would've liked to tie a brick to and throw in the river, but civility prevailed and he got a nice little injection... certainly better than he deserved.
After getting his butt whipped in a cat fight, he retreats to the rafters.
As if getting mauled by another cat weren't enough, then he gets pepper sprayed, TASERed, and then shot to death.
Talk about a bad-luck day for that cat...
That's just my point too. If this cat was putting up such a fight, then it CLEARLY was NOT near death. So why shoot the poor thing? Why not just drop the poor thing at the vets office?
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