Posted on 10/26/2007 7:01:11 AM PDT by BGHater
The mutilation and killing of felines in San Antonio has reached an unprecedented level, officials say, with 11 incidents reported over the past three weeks.
Most recently, on Wednesday morning, the remains of a cat were found at Northampton Drive and Wurzbach Road, in a manner not unlike the others that have been found in the city. Each had been cut with a "scalpel-like" instrument, veterinarian Melissa Draper said.
"Someone is displaying them," Animal Control Director Jeff Hale said of the felines, adding that the department is investigating Wednesday's killing as the latest in a string that might have been committed by the same person or group.
Wednesday's slaying was reported just hours after a San Antonio police officer watched a man toss a kitten into traffic on Interstate 35.
According to a police report, the officer watched a man "perform an underhand throw of the kitten" off the Brooklyn Avenue overpass of I-35 just after midnight. The 20-foot fall onto the middle lane of traffic killed the black and white kitten.
Daniel Holey, 26, was arrested and charged with the incident, and was being held Wednesday in lieu of posting a $6,000 bond on charges of animal cruelty and resisting arrest.
Holey, a senior airman stationed with the 93rd Intelligence Squadron at Lackland AFB, claims the kitten jumped from his arm, the report said.
An Air Force official said no disciplinary action was immediately taken against Holey, who the official said has been in the armed forces for seven years without any incidents.
The recent cat mutilations follow the September arrest of a 19-year-old man by Universal City police. Austin George Patterson was charged with three counts of cruelty to animals after three gray tabby cats were found slashed and duct-taped to a piece of plywood in Northeast Bexar County. He since has posted a $61,000 bond and is awaiting trial.
Those cats, which included a 3-year-old male named Taylor that was registered to Patterson and two others about 2 years old, were found under a sweatshirt by a man walking along the Cibolo Creek trails, their bodies arranged in a triangle. One was disemboweled and at least two had their throats slit. All three had fishing line tied around their necks, police said.
Police said they believe all three cats were bought on Craigslist.org, an online classified community.
Since then, cats continue to turn up dead in the San Antonio area, a fact that recently led Animal Control to add two investigators to its ranks.
Meanwhile, the Animal Defense League and the Humane Society SPCA of Bexar County and the Humane Society of the United States are offering a combined reward of $4,500 to anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the recent killings. Animal Control also asks anyone who witnesses a mutilation or killing or has information about any case to call (210)287-2778.
A little Jeff Dahmer in the making.
My thought exactly. Catch this nut before he tries it on a fellow human.
The rise of neo-paganism.
Why do owls like to cut off the paws and sometimes the head? Ask a Parks & Wildlife Biologist.
He hasn't eaten any of the little critters has he?
I will have to hide this article from my hubby. We are not allowed to step on the kitty picture on our welcome mat!
I do hope someone can catch the monster that would do this.
Seven years and still an E-3? I think it's obvious what kind of airman he is.
Feline serial killer?.........
Anyone who purposely hurts an animal is psychologically sick and a danger to society. I hope someone puts a bullet in this guys brain.
Owls don’t leave slashes that a veterinarian would identify as looking as if they’d been made with a scalpel.
So, after seven years in the Air Force he has rocketed up to E-3. A real asset.
There used to be a cat mutilator in North Dallas. I’d look for someone who lived in that area at the time who now lives in San Antonio. It’s been a few years, and I’ve forgotten the details, but I think that the mutilations then occurred mainly during school breaks.
Another stupid move....so many people put free animals on this list.....stupid stupid stupid.
My mistake. When I was a Civil Air Patrol cadet a Sergeant was an E-4 - that was quite a while ago!
So I guess we can count you out as a hunter then. Careful or you'll sound like a PETA freak.
>>The Yankee transplants in Granbury, Texas made the same complaint last month.
I think I cleared more trees last year than I see on a typical neighborhood block in Granbury. And yet you talk as though we don’t have owls here or know what they can do.
Those people sound like typical city slickers from anyplace USA. Certainly not Yankee transplants from rural areas.
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