Posted on 09/21/2007 1:38:09 PM PDT by RabidBartender
When Mark Samson returned from a business trip and discovered one of his kittens missing, he didn't give it much thought. The cat often wandered off, Samson said, trailing after passing strangers who paused to pet it.
Then two weeks went by without Samson's family seeing so much as a whisker. On Wednesday, they learned what had become of their beloved pet.
A sheriff's deputy said that their kitten's mutilated remains had been found on a neighbor's property along with those of another cat. Then it got worse.
Investigators say Tye Hilmo, 21, of Dacula trapped neighborhood kittens, hurt them and gave them to his pit bull to kill.
"That cat was special," Samson said. ... [My wife] raised it, fed it, got its shots."
Sheriff's deputies charged Hilmo with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony that carries a penalty of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. He's been in the Gwinnett County Jail, with no bond allowed, since deputies searched his home Sept. 10. They found two pounds of marijuana, several firearms — and two cat carcasses in the yard, said Stacey Bourbonnais, Gwinnett County sheriff's spokeswoman.
Hilmo's cellphone contained an image of a dog chewing a kitten above a caption that reads, "Good dog," Bourbonnais said.
"It's indescribable and sick that people would do this ... to and with animals," she said.
Deputies initially charged Hilmo with several offenses related to guns and drugs. They added aggravated cruelty to animals Thursday, but some neighbors were skeptical.
"He drinks and he's loud; there's no question about that," said Tim Johnson, 31, a neighbor. Yet he said Hilmo loved animals. He said he found the charges "really hard to believe."
Samson and stepdaughter Ashley McIlvainey, 18, said they aren't sure Hilmo is to blame.
"Tye is a really sweet person. He's like my brother," McIlvainey said. "I honestly don't think he did it."
2. It's Dacula, not DRACULA.
3. Try to copy some of the text of the story at the link - AJC has some funky thing where the text disappears when you highlight it.
It would be nice if the whole AJC disappeared............
OJ wants these people on his jury.
Sorry, did a search on “live cats”, Dacula, and cats AND dogs, but did not see the story already posted:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1899806/posts
3. Try to copy some of the text of the story at the link - AJC has some funky thing where the text disappears when you highlight it.
*********************************************************
While it’s not my regular browser, I do have a copy of Netscape 4.8 just for those websites when I want to copy and paste.
Yeah, I would’ve thought it would be more of a Woofman problem than a Dacula problem.
Seems to copy ok with Firefox 2.0 on XP. What browser do you use?
"When Mark Samson returned from a business trip and discovered one of his kittens missing, he didn't give it much thought. "
Using IE 6 away from home. When selecting text from the website, some of it disappears (I am guessing as a measure to get people to come to their website to read the articles and click on the ads).
I hit the Print Story option and selected the text there just fine.
Geez, was it a cat or a kitten?? Which one was it? Idiot reporters!
Guess the Samson family & I have different standards concerning the care & feeding of beloved pets.
That in no way excuses, condones, or exonerates Hilmer, who needs a few of his own body parts...my choice which...bitten off & chewed vigorously by his pit bull.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.