Minn. Police Chief Charged With Shooting Cats

[BEK]

Minn. Police Chief Charged With Shooting Cats

(AP) West Concord, Minn. The police chief in West Concord, Minn. was charged with felony mistreatment of animals on Wednesday after for allegedly shooting residents' cats last fall.

The Dodge County sheriff's office said Robert Utech was also charged with a gross misdemeanor count of misconduct by a public official.

Utech made his first court appearance Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance. He was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month.

Dodge County Sheriff Gary Thompson asked the Olmsted County sheriff's office to handle the investigation to avoid any conflict of interest.




This is such a joke, this should not be going on with this guy. I have known people to poison cats or shoot them. Cats spread bad stuff and make people sick.
MN has a feral cat deal that you can shoot wild cats. so if they werent taged of some sort he shouldnt have any problem

[Ducky]

So condemning cats to a possible lingering and horrible death is OK just because he didn't like them?

[Willowdared]

Minn. Police Chief Charged With Shooting Cats

(AP) West Concord, Minn. The police chief in West Concord, Minn. was charged with felony mistreatment of animals on Wednesday after for allegedly shooting residents' cats last fall.

The Dodge County sheriff's office said Robert Utech was also charged with a gross misdemeanor count of misconduct by a public official.

Utech made his first court appearance Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance. He was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month.

Dodge County Sheriff Gary Thompson asked the Olmsted County sheriff's office to handle the investigation to avoid any conflict of interest.

This is such a joke, this should not be going on with this guy. I have known people to poison cats or shoot them. Cats spread bad stuff and make people sick.

Was he shooting cats that belonged to people, or feral cats?

Have you cited the people who you know to have poisoned/shot cats? What does your state law say on the matter?

California PC 596/597:

596. Every person who, without the consent of the owner, wilfully
administers poison to any animal, the property of another, or exposes any poisonous substance, with the intent that the same shall be taken or swallowed by any such animal, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
However, the provisions of this section shall not apply in the case of a person who exposes poisonous substances upon premises or property owned or controlled by him for the purpose of controlling or destroying predatory animals or livestock-killing dogs and if, prior to or during the placing out of such poisonous substances, he shall have posted upon the property conspicuous signs located at intervals of distance not greater than one-third of a mile apart, and in any case not less than three such signs having words with letters at least one inch high reading "Warning--Poisoned bait placed out on these premises," which signs shall be kept in place until the poisonous substances have been removed. Whenever such signs have been conspicuously located upon the property or premises owned or controlled by him as hereinabove provided, such person shall not be charged with any civil liability to another party in the event that any domestic animal belonging to such party becomes injured or killed by trespassing or partaking of the poisonous substance or substances so placed.

597. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (c) of this section or
Section 599c, every person who maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animal, or maliciously andintentionally kills an animal, is guilty of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, or, alternatively, by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.

[jmur5074]

So condemning cats to a possible lingering and horrible death is OK just because he didn't like them?

sure

I hate cats.

I've never abused, beaten, or shot any though.

Now you see why!

[BEK]

I have shot cats before and will do it again. I hate them

[Ducky]

Why hate them? The only things I hate are things like the human animals that have proved they can't be trusted in society.

Ok, how about I propose to shoot every dog I see? Talk about spreading nasty things, not to mention the random attacks on people that some of them are prone to.

Would I? No, because I know better, I have three. I also have cats. At times past, I've also had chinchillas, rats (pets), mice (pets), fish, you name it. And the only animals I hate on a regular basis are certain humans.

But bluntly, what have cats ever done to you personally that make them deserving of death at your hands?

[BEK]

They breed like rabbits. Cats are destructive and spred diseases such as but not limited to
Feline infectious peritonitis
Feline leukemia
Rhinotracheitis herpesvirus
Feline calicivirus

They are worse than dogs, they get into trash and live in groups the largest I have seen was at least 20 cats. You have crazy old people that will feed these cats keeping them around.
Cats kill other animals and are bad for business

Hint for animal owners, if you dont want your pets harmed by others dont let them run wild in the community

[Ducky]

Let me guess, you're a dog person.

And people can't get those diseases anymore than they can get kennel cough from a dog.

[jlb66]

Hint for animal owners, if you dont want your pets harmed by others dont let them run wild in the community

That hit it the nail on the head.

There is odviously more to the story than what's here. I know in every community there are adandonded houses that cats and other animals go inside and make up a pad pretty soon and we've all seen them type of places where there are cats coming out of every nook and cranny in the house and having that many animlas in such close proximity is a public health night mare.

We just condemed and house in town that, and I shit you not had 50 cats living in it, 90% of these cats had something wrong with them either open sores, missing eyes these things were nasty. NOW, there was a lady that was living in this house along with them. So this ladies cats were running around town spreading god knows what to just about anything they came in contact with. Now would you consider these feral or not since they were suppose to be living with someone or someone claimed them?

I dont' mind cats I have 2 of my own but I am all for shooting them if they are running around. Like BEK said if you don't want anything to happen to your animals dont' let them run around town. Now I know that was kind of an extreme example but who makes the decision if these are feral or not?

I have shot a cat in town in the not so distant past and the only reason I did that was becasue the little Son of a Bitch bite me on the wrist while I was taking a plastic bag off of it's head that was stuck on it and I wanted it tested for rabbies. Thus making me have to go through the fun time of gets rabbies shots becasue this little bastard looked like it had mange, scurvy or some other shit. I'm also all for shooting them out side of town as long as they are not within about 1/4 mile of a farm site. Anything outside that boundary is fair game. Not because I hate them but because they are one of if not the biggest predators of pheasants, partridge, and ducks in the wild.

I believe that case with the house I just refered to is closed I have pictures of the house it was absolutly horrible. Just an example the door going to the basement had a small path leading to it and the cat shit was 1.5 feet deep all around it and in the basement there was about 4 feet of standing water and I counted 3 dead decaying cats floating in the stagnent water and that's just one picture example. It was fucking nasty. Maybe I should post a few. Anyway, I'm done now.

[Jackalope]

Cats mainly kill rodents, which carry far more diseases than the cats themselves.

I can understand large herds of stray cats causing problems, but a neighbor's cat exploring your yard isn't hurting a thing, and doesn't deserve to die.

[TXPO710]

They breed like rabbits. Cats are destructive and spred diseases such as but not limited to
Feline infectious peritonitis
Feline leukemia
Rhinotracheitis herpesvirus
Feline calicivirus

They are worse than dogs, they get into trash and live in groups the largest I have seen was at least 20 cats.

So do gangs, Can we shoot them? please pretty please???

[Pedro56]

Pepper spray is more fun

[BEK]

whatever your feelings are on this. Unless you know what its like to work in a small town having to deal with pissed off city fathers you dont understand. If the counsel says there are too many cats running free in town something needs to be done, well you do something. Now unlike big citys that can fund things like this small towns are stuck. if you set up traps and catch one cat, then take it to the nearist vet if the accept animals, then the city has to foot the bill for everything for 5 days if they arnt claimed then they get sent off to the humane society or put down. Now if you work for an small poor city that cant buy you anything for the dept what are you to do. If the cat has a collar its more likely to goto the vet because then we know that they are someones cats. if you have a cat problem like alot of small towns have then trapping all the cats bringing them into a happy vet that can prob only take 2-5 cats anything more will be unlikely. I just do not think that this guy should be charged with a felony and loose his job over 7 cats over a year and a half. btw cats do kill rodents but also birds here are some stats from WI

Low value: (lowest population estimate) x (twice kill rate by urban cats) x (low percentage of kills that are birds) 1.4 million cats x 28 x 20% = 7.8 million birds killed by rural cats

Intermediate value: (mean population estimate) x (intermediate kill rate) x (higher percentage of kills that are birds) 1.7 million cats x 91 x 25% = 38.7 million birds killed by rural cats

High value: (highest population estimate) x (highest kill rate) x (highest percentage of kills that are birds) 2 million cats x 365 x 30% = 219 million birds killed by rural cats

"Many of these tubby tabbies kill for fun rather than for food. Unlike wild predators, domestic cats hunt whether they are hungry or not. Professor Stan Temple of the University of Wisconsin (UW) calls cats "subsidized predators" because they receive a steady supply of food at home."-mn dnr

[lewisipso]

Don't kill the animal. Give the animal to someone that gives a shit and kill the dumbass owner. Problem solved. (Except for the small homicide investigations of course)

[gozling]

Here we have a huge wild cat issue.
There is a very sucessful feral cat program.

since I have worked with the program there were 300 cats on this one section of beach.
Every one of them is recorded, photographed and kept a log - all done by volunteers. There is a vet that donates his time to fixing them and giving them vaccines. It has been shown that fixing them and vaccinating them and then releasing them back here where we found them has brought that number down to 125 cats

New cats who are dumped off are caught in humane traps and 99 percent are found homes. The population is decreasing and now our problem are racoons.
The racoons have quadroupled and are attacking the beach goers...
but that is another issue and they arent touchable here lol...

anyway.. there are programs that work.. This one here works very well although it is slow, it is humane and the animals die on their own or by vehicles or other predators...

Im sorry but anyone who would kill even a feral cat, in my book is a fu**ing pussy just because he doesn't like them....
But that is the Veterinarian in me....

Education and research.... there are programs that work for Feral cats and lowering thier population in certain areas if people took the time to educate themselves...

anyway... here is a link to the site called catpals...

www.catpals.org

maybe as officers in other states you can suggest this website to people and see if they are interested in starting some program like it.. go to the about section and it will explain alot

this man disgusts me personally.

funny thing is i am really a dog person lol... i get upset when people yell at me while I feed the cats...

i tell them.. they are not here because we feed them... I feed them because they are here... there is a big difference and I hope everyone will go read about the feral cat program at the web site.

[countybear]

Cats are disgusting creatures, here's proof:



BEK's department is dealing with the problem accordingly:



Hopefully, they will be able to take out these especially radical wanted feline felons:

Lee Harvey Fuzzwald:



And Osama bin Hairball:



(just a little humor to lighten the topic up some)

[lewisipso]

The second SWAT picture depicted how bad things went. The feline in question had just taken an overdose of catnip and the two officers were treated on scene for severe lacerations.

[gozling]

LOL lee harvey fuzzwald...

[HudsonHawk]

At least the chief wasn't speeding past the residents' houses!

[Terminator]

At least the chief wasn't speeding past the residents' houses!

Imagine this....a drive by shooting of an innocent street cat, while speeding 8 mph over the speed limit, in a residential neighborhood!!!