A good Samaritan in Harrisonburg, VA picked up an injured cat on the road on November 11 and took him home, contacting authorities. A police officer responded to the call and told the good Sam he had two choices – let the cat suffer and die or let the officer kill the cat.
Unless this officer is also a veterinarian who travels with diagnostic testing equipment, I don’t know how he determined that the cat was medically hopeless but that’s what reportedly was said. I doubt the officer had a microchip scanner either to see if the owner had permanently identified the cat in case of emergency. But I guess, you know – meh.
The good Sam chose to allow the officer to “euthanize” the cat:
“I told the officer I didn’t have the stomach or nerves to put an animal down,” [the good Samaritan] said. “The officer said he would take care of it. I went inside and braced to hear a shot.”
Instead, he looked out the window and saw the officer drawing his baton. He said he went to the kitchen so he wouldn’t see what was about to happen. He estimated that the officer struck the cat 15 to 20 times.
By the time the brutal killing was over with, the good Sam had tears in his eyes. He looked outside to see blood everywhere and damage to the siding on his home. I assume the baton wielding was so violent that the officer could not control the weapon and caused damage to the siding. The good Sam was so upset, he could not stay in his home that night.
I’m not trying to be morbid here but just close your eyes for a minute and picture an injured cat in need of help. Then count to 20. It’s unbearable. I can not fathom the level of barbarism required to commit such an atrocity, let alone get my head around the notion that we are talking about a police officer, sworn to protect and to serve the community. This cat may have had an owner but the officer apparently didn’t bother to check. If the cat had no owner or his owner was unknown at the time of the call, he was a community pet. Serve. Protect.
The officer has not been named and the department will not say whether he was disciplined.