Video of woman being arrested in a public place for eating someone's cat

Here is the video on X. It is weird and painful to realise that this woman allegedly ate a domestic cat and apparently there are witnesses so it seems she ate the cat in a public place. Dare I ask: "Did she kill and cook the cat, or did she just kill the cat and eat it raw?"

Makes me puke to think about it. But is it true? Remarkably it seems that there is a claim from Republicans that Haitian migrants in Springfield, OH are killing and eating pets. This arrest might be linked to that story. These claims are it seems politically motivated to boost Trump's campaign because he is very much against immigrants. The woman above is I believe Allexis Telia Ferrell and the place is Canton, OH, about 200 miles from Springfield.

I have just written about Trump's incredibly poor decision-making to rant and rave about this viral social media story in the presidential debate when it is not based on hard fact [link to follow-up article]. A terrible decision by him and he has egg on his face.

On Monday, social media was flooded with posts from prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators claiming Haitian migrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, were brutalizing and consuming local cats and ducks. - Rolling Stone

This woman was arrested for eating someone’s pet cat in Ohio. How does something like this happen? pic.twitter.com/5zaFcARrHv

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 8, 2024

If she did eat a cat she must have been high on drugs surely. No other way a person could do that unless they were mentally ill. Days later the information is that this is 'fake' news but the picture is not clear.

The police officer wanted the Humane Society to take the deceased cat away. A bit odd that. Surely the cat should have been kept as evidence and after a trial cremated. It looks like the police had no intention of charging the woman and taking the matter to trial. Perhaps the police don't believe the witnesses. Perhaps this supports the claims that this is all bogus political shenanigans.

Linked article: Haitians killing and eating pet cats in Ohio? True or false? This is an evolving and therefore somewhat fragmented story.

This is a quote from The Mirror:

During his first debate with Kamala Harris, former President Trump told the millions of viewers: "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what is happening in this country and it is a shame."

On the issue as to whether the allegation that Haitian migrants are killing and eating pet dogs and cats, Viles Dorsainvil, president of Springfield's Haitian Community Help and Support Center, told NBC News: "It's just bigotry, discrimination and racism. There is a group of people who have been fabricating some news just to denigrate Haitians."

JD Vance has admitted that "It's possible, of course, that all of these rumours will turn out to be false."

Although Trump insisted that they were true and as mentioned on this page, the Springfield city manager's statement that "there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community," means that it's unlikely that the claims are true. And as mentioned also on this page I have hinted before that there appears to be an agenda here based on racism. Although a proper investigation would help.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Latvian authorities send cars of drunk drivers to Ukraine (no compensation)

If you are arrested for drink driving in Latvia, you lose your car and it is sent to Ukraine to support the country in their fight against the Russian invaders. More $1m of cars have already been sent (by Dec 2023). Lithuania is planning on doing the same. Also, all vehicles with Russian registration plates are confiscated and sent to Ukraine for the war effort. Great. Tough for Russians living in Russia.

The drivers are not compensated financially when their vehicles are confiscated due to drink driving. The confiscation is part of the penalty for the offense. In Latvia, this measure is intended to be a deterrent against driving under the influence, with the additional benefit of aiding Ukraine by providing vehicles for their efforts in the ongoing conflict.

The loss of the vehicle is a consequence of the criminal act, and the government does not provide financial compensation to the convicted drivers. This policy aims to send a strong message about the seriousness of drink driving and the importance of supporting Ukraine.

How about that? Amazing don't you think? Very bold action. The UK government might learn from that and be a lot bolder in their actions to put things right in the country. 

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Everyone screamed as police 4x4 hit the calf at 30 mph and 4 more times!

This is the viral news story of a police officer driving his police vehicle into a female calf on a suburban road because that police officer feared for the lives of pedestrians in the area and the police claim that the calf rammed cars and by implication therefore damage them.

Everyone screamed as police 4x4 hit the calf at 30 mph and 4 more times! Screenshot from resident's video

The truth of the story is different to the one presented by the police which isn't unusual in my experience. This, by the way, is an opinion article based upon the news. I will declare right away that I don't like the police. Some like the police and some don't. I am in the latter group. My dislike of the police come from personal experience and encounters with them.

Initially in a news report it was said that the police car rammed the calf twice and on the second occasion the calf ended up under the vehicle. The latter is true but an eyewitness said that the police officer rammed the calf five times. And to all intents and purposes it looks very much like this police officer wanted to kill the calf in a panicked judgement.

The officer who used his police car to ram the escaped cow has been removed from frontline duties while witnesses said they were disgusted by what they saw. They screamed and cried and howled in anguish at what they saw.

And it appears to me that it was bystanders who successfully intervened and helped the police to get the calf into a horsebox and back to the farm from where it had escaped. The owners of the farm are bemused as to how the cow escaped but they think it might've swam over a river. It would seem, too, that without wishing to be too critical, they are also negligent.

Everyone screamed as police 4x4 hit the calf at 30 mph and 4 more times! Screenshot from resident's video

And I'm making an allegation here that the police were negligent and I will also make an allegation that it is possible that the police committed a crime. A crime under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in the UK.

It's being investigated. Advocates for Animals a law firm, said that they had been instructed by the charity Humane Society International UK to look into prosecutions. It isn't me who believes that this might have been a crime which it looks like.

Under that act it is a crime to unnecessarily cause pain in an animal. The argument here is that it was unnecessary to ram the calf because there were many other more humane options. The police needed to seek help. They were involved with this calf for a few hours we are told. They had plenty of time to assess the situation and seek proper assistance from experts who could have dealt with the calf humanely.

The calf was knocked down near Bedfont Lakes Country Park and Saint Dunstan's Meadow in Feltham in west London. Hounslow Heath has been a home for a herd of cattle for a long time and is about 3 miles away.

What's amazing about the story is that the police officer decided to ram the calf knowing full well that it was likely that there'd be someone somewhere filming the incident and that is what happened. A resident's video footage shows the police car speeding into the back of the stray animal sending its sprawling down the road. And in another video seen by The Times newspaper a female police officer tells a witness that she understood their anger and said, "I feel awful."

That's an admission by a fellow police officer that what the behaviour of male police officer driving the vehicle was awful and wrong. Here, here!

The calf has a name: Beau Lucy, indicating that this was a pet of some sort or at least they have a close relationship with the owner.

James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, called for a "full and urgent explanation" having seen the video I believe on social media where it has been shared extensively.

Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp, of Surrey police said: "I fully appreciate the distress our handling of this incident has caused and will ensure that it is thoroughly and diligently investigated. In addition to an internal referral to our professional standards department, we have also referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. At this time, the officer who was driving the police car has been removed from frontline duties pending the outcome of these investigations. I know there is much concern around the current welfare of the cow. She continues to be monitored by a vet and our rural officers are staying in contact with the owner for updates."

Kai Bennett, 22, a warehouse worker, was an eyewitness to the events. He said the animal was struck five times and not two as initially reported. He said he was returning home after visiting a friend when a group of people ran towards him. "They carried on past me and I asked them what they were running from and they just shouted 'cow'. I then saw a black baby calf running at me."

"I didn't want to get hurt so I decided to follow it and called the police. A big police 4x4 turned up and hit the cow at about 30 mph. I went ballistic. The car wasn't hurting anyone. They did it again and this time they pulled forward so the car was pinning it down by the neck. It was disgusting. It managed to get up and walked off very confused. The police officer got back in the car, did a U-turn and ran it over again. Everyone was screaming, thinking it was dead."

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Police try to stop an escaped cow by ramming it with their car in Feltham, West London.
byu/Xisrr1 inPETA

Marlin's police chief, city manager and animal control officer accused of animal cruelty

NEWS AND COMMENT/OPINION: In Marlin, Texas, USA, the police chief, city manager and animal control oversee a dog shelter (dog pound). And within that dog pound there were dogs that were starving and living in filth and on the verge of death. Many had died. It was a vision of Armageddon in the dog shelter world.

Starving dog at Marlin's dog pound. Image: KWTX.

This appears to have been a complete failure by the city officials in caring for shelter dogs. It's the kind of failure which would normally result in arrests and prosecutions of the administrators of the shelter. 

But, as we know, when the authorities are the alleged perpetrators of animal abuse they are protected because they close ranks and the law is not applied equally. The old adage that everyone is equal under the law is simply a false concept.

In this instance, Marlin's mayor promised accountability but has so far failed to deliver according to Nathan Winograd in his email to me.

There's been a promised investigation by the Falls County Sheriff's Office which has not materialised. Sheriff Joe Lopez of that office said that dogs were not his priority! Yes, we understand that anywhere on the planet, for the police, dogs are not a priority and neither are cats.

The police are invariably engaged in speciesism by which I mean they prioritize humans over companion animals.

As a consequence of this failure of the authorities to act, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has become involved and he is reviewing the case. He told local news reporters that "the Marlin Animal Shelter investigation is now one of his top priorities."

The residents in the area are becoming restless and irritated by the lack of action. They are protesting according to local news reports (which is why the Governor is involved 🙄). They want accountability. A local news station reports that multiple dogs were found dead. They must've starved to death.

Around 40 peaceful protesters are demanding change. They've been protesting in Moody, Temple and Thornton to demand that Marlin's city manager, animal control officer and the police chief be arrested for animal cruelty under the law. They want prosecutions and they want accountability.

The mayor, Susan Byrd, said, "As a proponent of dog rescues we are all working to cooperate with the investigation by the Falls County Sheriff's Office. Upon completion of the investigation, the City of Marlin will do our best to ensure the responsible parties are all held accountable."

It would seem to me that she is in charge and therefore she should also be accountable 🤢. The local newsgathering station that I referred to here, KWTX, said that they tried calling the Marlin Police Chief multiple times for his comment but nothing was forthcoming.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

UK police community support officer orders man to clean up his dog's urine

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is another very strange indeed ridiculous story because the behaviour of the police community support officer is extraordinary and ridiculous.

Steve Schuurman, 56, an NHS worker, was walking his dog in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England (information provided for non-UK citizens) last week. His dog cocked her leg to relieve herself which is what we expect dogs to do.

Dog urinating in typical style! This is not the dog in the story. Image: The Telegraph.

In the UK, the modern policies to pick up dog faeces which makes a lot of sense and people do it all the time these days. But there are no rules about trying to scrub off urine from surfaces. That's entirely impractical and ridiculous.

However, a police community support officer became aggressive towards Steve Schuurman, according to him. He claims that the Dorset police community officer told him to "clear [up] your F*****g dog p**s".

He challenged her at which point the officer threatened to have him arrested if he didn't move on.

At that time, Dorset Police and Bournemouth Council had a stall and a van in the town centre as part of a day of action and after several high-profile crimes in the area.

Steve Schuurman said he would have cleaned up his dog's urine but didn't know how to do it.

He reported the incident to the Dorset Police complaints department. They are looking into it! Steve Schuurman said that the woman "got really aggressive" and "was waving her hands around and putting her hands on her hips, saying it was disgusting."

He asked for an apology. Apparently there were two female police community officers as I understand it. On asking for the apology they told him that he would be arrested if he didn't move on.

As I said, it is extraordinary. And an abuse of police powers. For those living abroad, a "police community support officer" is a kind of lesser police officer with shorter training but they wear a uniform and have certain rights/powers but not those of police officers.

Further comment: obviously these officers were asking for the impossible and therefore they were acting stupidly. And of course if we are to be totally fair, nobody ever asks cat owners to clear up the cat's urine when they pee in public places. Not that it's practical or feasible but it's another point worth making about the idiocy of the behaviour of these two police officers.

There is one last point to make and that is this: of course, when an animal urinates in a public place it is not nice. It is possibly unacceptable but it happens all over Great Britain and other countries all the time. It'll be up to the government of any country to create a law which forbids it. But the police officers can't make up the rules as they go along.

Such a law would be very difficult to pass through Parliament in the UK and in any other legislature in any other country. In fact it would be impossible today but one day it may happen. It really might happen one day.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

No obligation for UK police to investigate dog killing cat

This is part of a "great debate". The GB News website has a story about a large dog described as a "copy of XL bully" killing a lady's cat. Her name is Becky and she is campaigning for a change in UK law. I am sorry but she won't succeed but I wish her all the best.

In the UK, the police do nothing about an attack by a dog on another dog or cat unless the dog is an assistance dog or service dog. Image: MikeB under Canva license.

She says that she has no recourse to prosecute the owners of the dog that killed her cat Freya because in the UK, only dog on dog attacks can be pursued by police and only in those instances where the victim is an assistance or service dog or if the dog's owner is injured and/or the attacking dog was dangerously out of control.

RELATED: read more on this tricky aspect of UK law by clicking on the following link: In the UK, if a dog injuries or kills your cat the police might not become involved.

The bottom line is that if a dog attacks a cat, the police won't do anything about it, I understand. That's law in the UK.

"There have been decisions in the past by courts and authorities to suggest that it is the nature of a dog to kill and wound small animals. As such, unfortunately there is no certainty that the police could take action, in the event of your pet being killed or wounded by a dog." - West Yorkshire Police

I had never heard of that before. It places assistance and service dogs above an ordinary dog companion. It's a type of speciesism if you like. And it would certainly be upsetting to a dog owner to have their dog killed by another without recourse in terms of criminal behaviour.

Although a prosecution wouldn't be possible, I would suggest that the owner of the victim dog could, if it was practical, sue the owner of the attacking dog in negligence for failing to take charge of their dog adequately and allowing the animal to attack their dog and kill him or her.

There will be very few people who would commence a civil action like that because the damages would almost certainly be small, perhaps to the value of the dog or cat without valuing the distress caused to the owner. In which case the damages might be as low as £100 or thereabouts.

If the owner of the victim dog employed a lawyer to help them the costs would far outweigh the damages awarded if they won. Therefore they would have to conduct the case themselves which would probably be a big barrier.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Closure of cat meat restaurant, Vietnam. For an animal advocate this is a great Christmas present.

NEWS AND OPINION. THIS IS AN OP-ED. I VOICE MY OPINION: For an animal advocate like myself and there are many millions of others the news that the Vietnamese restaurant that killed 300 cats a month to make cats soup has closed for good is the best Christmas present they could have. 

This restaurant was a blot on the animal welfare landscape. They drowned 300 cats a month to make cat soup and presumably other cat meat meals. Can you imagine that? Drowning 300 cats a month? Every act an act of gross cruelty multiplied by 300 in a 30 day period which is 10 acts of gross cruelty every day against innocent animals.

And the people who did it had no qualms about it at all. Not an inkling of conscience. Nothing, nada, zero. The brain was dead. Or perhaps I am wrong and they did grow a conscience (see below).

Education

Actually, I think this is about education. I think the owner of this restaurant learned through the Internet and through the Humane Society that stealing people's pets and cruelly killing them and then eating them was immoral, wrong and entirely inhumane. It's about education ultimately. If you want to stop the cat meat trade then you need to educate people.

Pham Quoc Doanh, the restaurant owner tears down the signage on the closure of his cat meat restaurant. Image: Daily Mail.

Internet and sites like this and news media educate

This restaurant has been in the news quite a lot recently and I'm delighted that the news media are picking up on cat meat stories from Asia. I know this is a cultural thing and I know that we have to be sensitive about cultural differences and I try to be. We have to be sensitive and I understand that but when a culture fosters animal cruelty I think it becomes a universal issue and I also think under those circumstances we have a right to criticise.

I believe that anybody anywhere should do their best to stop animal cruelty by anybody anywhere.

This was the Gia Bảo restaurant in Thai Nguyen city, in the country's northeast. It was a profitable enterprise. Where did the cats come from? The Daily Mail says that they were "likely including stolen pets". They were drowned in a bucket one after another the newspaper says. Horrendous. Don't dwell on that thought.

The business was run by a 37-year-old man called Pham Quoc Doanh who took to this horrendous business because she was struggling to feed his family selling "other normal food and drinks". He's the man in the picture above.

He discovered that there was no other restaurant in the area where he lived selling cat meat so he decided on that type of business. No issue in his mind about animal cruelty by the way? And I am sensitive to the fact that he was struggling to survive. That is one aspect of the cat meat business. He had to find a way to feed his family and sometimes we have to give up on principles. 

However, putting criticism aside, he appears to have changed his mind because he reached out to the Humane Society International which has been campaigning for some time to stop the cat meat trade in Vietnam. The Humane Society offered him a one-off grant to change businesses to a grocery store. Perhaps he had seen the negative publicity and experienced falling trade?

He took up the offer and the picture you see on this page is him symbolically tearing down the signage outside his restaurant to begin a new business and a new way of life.

He said that he became upset with the cat meat business. These are his words:

"For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I've slaughtered and served up here over the years, it's upsetting."

He added: 'Cat theft is so common in Vietnam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone's loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that.'

Well, those words warm my heart in one way - his change of heart but he has committed horrendous crimes for a long time. And my eternal thanks to the Humane Society International which is doing such great work. It must have been a real struggle to encourage this man to do, what I would regard to be, the right thing.

The Daily Mail says that about 1 million cats are killed annually for their meat in Vietnam. I think you'll find that about 10 times that number is killed in China for the same purpose.

Vietnamese no longer believe in the cat meat business

Remarkably, the newspaper tells us that 71% of Vietnamese people living in Vietnam are in favour of a ban of cat meat. So perhaps his business was beginning to lose trade anyway. He found a way out.

We know that many domestic animals i.e. people's pets including stray cats are stolen for the cat meat trade. The same, by the way, applies to dogs in China and other Asian countries.

Education about superstitions

And you might know this but you might not: people who eat cat meat believe that it carries health benefits such as alleviating arthritis or that it has aphrodisiac properties. Sadly, I have to say that no science supports these views. It is all superstition; a superstition which results in mass cruelty against millions of companion animals. It is simply intolerable to any decent-minded person.

Massive amount of theft

The newspaper also tells us that 87% of people in Vietnam have had their pets stolen for the cat meat business or know of somebody who's pet was stolen.

That's another topic: the theft of domestic cats. The cat meat business is not only causing mass animal cruelty but mass criminality. Clearly nobody has been prosecuted for theft even though it happens up to a million times a year. This points to a lack of enforcement of criminal legislation in Vietnam because theft must be a crime in Vietnam. It begs the question as to whether animal cruelty is a crime in Vietnam. I would have thought that it was but once again there is a lack of enforcement.

The cats that were at the restaurant have been rescued. They were traumatised and they have been vaccinated and checked over for health issues and treated by veterinarians after which they will be put up for adoption and rehomed.

The companion animals and engagement programme manager of Humane Society International in Vietnam said:

"We are thrilled to be closing down our first cat meat trade business in Viet Nam, and hope it will be the first of many as more people like Mr. Doanh turn away from this cruel trade."

A big pat on the back to this man or woman. Let's hope that this cat meat business closure becomes a catalyst for similar events across Vietnam and in the wider region.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Bunch of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police beat up woman selling vegetables

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is the tweet: "The Communist regime’s dog-like city management officials, beating a poor woman who sells vegetables! It appears her husband is forced to watch this scene! Beasts! #CCPChina".

Do they need a license to sell vegetables in China? What has she done wrong? That is not the point though. The point is that if she has done something wrong the police should either caution her or after spelling out her rights regarding evidence arrest her for violating a specific law.

But this is China where they kill dogs in the street all the time by beating. Where cats are stolen for the cat meat market in their many thousands and where the f*** police prefer to beat up a woman rather than abide by the law.

Note that her husband is retrained while he is forced to watch this crime by the police whose job it is to stop crime.

If they had owned a dog, it would have been killed there and then. An example of poor human rights in China. As you can expect animal right are pretty well non-existent in China. You don't want to be a dog in China. You really wouldn't.

Chinese police beat up woman trading in vegetables. Screenshot.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Police officer adopts kitten 'thrown from window' who clung to his shoulders

 Come on, this is great story. I think this police officer is a really nice guy. He has a heart. And Penny was brave and smart to pick him! She made it known to him that he was the man for her. And she got him for life. She is a dilute calico - a really nice coat They are nearly always female and I guess that is what the SPCA told him when he was allowed to foster her.

Penny was thrown from a window. It must have been a downstairs window. And she was under a couch. The owner must have been a thrown away their couch in the same way they threw away their cat.

That's a crime, isn't it? Cat abandonment. Normally is and it is a form of cat cruelty anyway. Why didn't this nice police officer arrest the owner!? 

They make a great couple, don't they? The story is proof that the cat picks the person when it comes to selecting a cat at a rescue shelter. If the cat comes to you and jumps onto your shoulders or lap, that's it. Over and out. You have yourself a new cat companion. No arguments.

He fostered Penny first but that was only an interim step as he always intended to adopt her, I think. He, like me, is a failed foster carer!

This relationship will have legs. It'll last and last. The bond is unbreakable. Adopting like this creates an instant and durable bond. A connection that you don't always get when you purchase a purebred cat from a breeder.

Clean-cut Chicago man allegedly a kitten torturer and killer

NEWS AND COMMENT-Chicago, USA: The New York Post tells me that Thomas Martel, 22, turned himself into the police after his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend or a woman filed a complaint about him concerning animal cruelty.

Clean cut Thomas Martel. An alleged kitten torturer/killer. Image: Cook County Sheriff's Office.

Some websites have put a warning on their article to protect readers because it is alleged that he put one kitten in a bag and then in a microwave. It is also alleged that he drowned and squeezed to cats to death and a third he mutilated.

Bizarrely, each of the kittens that died had the name 'Shelly'. Apparently, the arrest warrant has been made public and within it there is a record of Martel taking prescribed medications and that he allegedly suffers from mental health issues.

Comment: you have to suffer from mental health issues if you did what he is alleged to have done. Nobody normal cannot do what he allegedly did.

He has a clean-cut look as I say in the title. I think it is relevant to the discussion. He is not a dishevelled, ill-educated young man as you might think, on drugs and a low-lifer. 

He appears to be well educated, well brought up and the kind of young man you would pass in the street in a respectable suburb and believe that he was a contributor to society but apparently not. 

We will have to see how it pans out because these are allegations but then again, he did turn himself in which indicates an admission to the allegations.

His alleged perverted behavior reminds me of Jack Spicey Strip in China who apparently went on a rampage an cat killing including using a microwave. Maybe be got the idea from Jack.

The tweet from Phaedra updates the page. It looks worse than I had thought. His girlfriend allegedly found the kittens on Craigslist! Why did she expose the crimes?

#ThomasMartel of #WickerPark is out on $7,600 dollar bail. His family got him out. His girlfriend would go and get kittens for him off #Craigslist.
Laws are weak because #lawmakers don't want #dogfighters to go to #prison. #FACT
Hes been enjoying killing animals since he was 8,… https://t.co/sjjIPrRrpS

— Phaedra (@PhaedraXTeddy) July 16, 2023

British police officer sold sick and dying kittens in a cruel £280,000 moneymaking scam

NEWS AND OPINION: In another example of British police officers misbehaving, former British Transport Police officer Amy Byrne and her partner Harry Angell bought kittens at a discounted price and apparently, they also bred kittens as well and then sold them at inflated prices. 

I will suggest here that the reason they were able to sell the sick kittens at inflated prices is because they claimed that they were purebred kittens. This has not been reported in the news media but if you can buy kittens for £50 online which you can and then sell them for hundreds of pounds which you also can you have to justify it by misrepresenting the kittens as purebred. 

A lot of people are fooled by claims that cats are purebred, pedigree cats. They don't know the cat breeds or what they should look like. The wool can be pulled over their eyes. You see a lot of this online. In truth this couple's scam was based on this weakness in knowledge.

One of the sick kittens. Image: SWNS/RSPCA

In this moneymaking scam, the health and welfare of the kittens concerned were completely ignored. Customers often found that their new pets were malnourished, ill and even covered in urine or faeces. They sometimes died not long after they were adopted. This is after the family had bonded to the kitten which makes this go even more obnoxious because it wasn't only the kittens who suffered but the people who bought them as well.

This scamming couple used at least 33 fake identities in adverts. Remember, this is a police officer. She was engaging in out-and-out crime. Another example by the way of a failure in the selection process for police officers. This has been admitted by the head of the Metropolitan Police. Although Amie Byrne worked for the British Transport Police as mentioned.

The couple deceived buyers into believing that they were buying kittens that had been wormed and micro-chipped. They provided fake health certificates.

They pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to charges of fraud and breaches of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Angell was jailed for three years and four months while Byrne was jailed for three years and eight months. They were both banned from owning pets for 10 years with no chance of an appeal.

The RSPCA prosecuted. Representing that charity at court, Hazel Stevens gave six examples where kittens died soon after they were bought. She said:

There were human and animal victims in this. Humans were at risk of getting illnesses from the cats. Children were excited about a new member of the family including one child who made a card to thank Amy Byrne only to see them died days later.

One parent bought a male kitten for her artistic son. She soon found that the cat was in fact female and was underweight and had diarrhoea in her fur. She died soon afterwards.

One victim said:

Having recently lost a cat, we were so looking forward to giving a home to a new kitten. We instantly fell in love with Elsa, who was so sleepy and cuddly when we got her. For the two precious weeks we had her she became part of our family. We were devastated to watch her slowly go downhill, trying to rid her of the worms she arrived with and taking her to the vet for numerous tests. She spent the last two days in the animal hospital with them trying everything to make a better but she gave up the fight.

Think of the emotional pain of that and the pain suffered by the kitten. And also think of the financial cost.

When purchasers contacted the couple, they were ignored. Trading Standards and the RSPCA were inundated with complaints leading to the police searching the home of Byrne and Angell. They tried to throw away their mobile phones. Angell jumped out of the window and threw his phone in the garden. Byrne did a factory reset on her phone.

Despite these attempts to remove data, Angell's phone was recovered which revealed hundreds of images of kittens. There were also enquiries about adverts and complaints from customers on the phone.

The Times newspaper (the source of this article) reports that Angell bragged about how he bought two kittens for £75 then sold them for £600 each the next week. The RSPCA say that the couple intended to make a gain of £278,870. Byrne was sacked in January after a misconduct investigation. She shared another property containing cannabis plants and a half-smoked joint and a pack of cannabis seeds.

Case dropped against couple of elderly ladies prosecuted for feeding feral cats on public property

NEWS AND COMMENT-Wetumpka Alabama: this is a good news story. It is a story which tells us that there is a little bit of common sense in the American judicial system. You may remember the two elderly ladies, Beverley Roberts (84) and Mary Alston (60) who routinely fed and looked after feral cats on public property but were then suddenly arrested by the police for criminal trespass and then disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental operations.

Here is the video and below that a still image:

Elderly lady arrested for feeding feral cats in Alabama. Image: body camcorder on officer.

To outsiders, and to 100% of cat advocates, it looked farcical. Two old ladies doing something good for the community being jumped on and stamped on by the police and then suffering criminal charges which were successfully prosecuted. They were convicted and sentenced to 2 years' probation and 10 years in jail. The sentence was suspended.

Trapping, spaying and neutering, and rehoming or releasing (TNR) stray cats is an act of kindness and not a crime.

Latest news is great news

Now, the latest news is that Wetumpka is no longer pursuing these criminal charges. An application was made to the Elmore County Circuit Court to suspend the proceedings. The Latin term is "nolle pros". It means that the authorities don't wish to pursue the prosecution at this time but they can restart it in the future. In my opinion, there's no chance of it being restarted in the future.

The judge, Amanda Baxley, wisely granted the application (motion). That is the story. The judge made no comment on her order. She was just following common sense as I state. She was doing what the general public would have done.

I would be surprised if she didn't think that the whole thing was farcical in the first place. It should never have happened. It was heavy-handed. It was unnecessary.

Even if this couple of ladies were doing something technically wrong, they should have been spoken to by the police and cautioned. That would have been it. It wouldn't have made the news. The police wouldn't have been made to look stupid.

I would argue that this case did the police damage. It harmed their reputation I would argue. And all police forces need to enhance the reputation because they're often disliked.

Welsh police mistook a tabby kitten for a Scottish wildcat and allegedly abused the animal

This is another example of the stupidity of UK police. Over and over again they screw up. They are as thick as bricks. In this instance it occurred in Wales. The police seized what is clearly a cute tabby kitten, Finlay, from an address in Conway, North Wales believing that he was an endangered Scottish wildcat! There are no Scottish wildcats in Wales. Pretty well everyone knows that. They seized the cat because they thought that Finlay was being kept without a licence.

Finlay - a tabby kitten seized by the idiotic police as an endangered Scottish wildcat! Pic in public domain.

They had the cat examined and decided that he was a standard tabby cat. But in the meantime, they had kept him in their custody in an inappropriate enclosure for over four months. Yes, it took them four months to figure out that they had a tabby kitten rather than a Scottish wildcat!! Idiots.

And the enclosure was unsuitable with mulch on the floor. Finlay is now in a rescue centre called Wildcat Haven. They say that when he was released by Welsh police, he was in a bad way having suffered psychological trauma. They say that he was "seized and detained, in our opinion, without due cause or reason by the North Wales police.

He was kept at an undisclosed location for 4.5 month and when he was seized by the police he was in prime physical condition and they had hoped that he would be cared for properly and returned in the same condition.

But sadly not. They say that "it is clear that Finlay has experienced serious physiological and psychological trauma at the hands of his captors". They mean the police. They further said that "We were assured by the police that Finlay was receiving specialist care. Such mental and physical deterioration in four-and-a-half months, does not suggest specialist care. It suggests abuse."

And that “The police also told us numerous times that Finlay was being kept in a naturalistic enclosure. However, notes provided to us by the police show that he was kept in an enclosure with a mulch floor. He didn’t even have grass under his feet."

North Wales police denied the abuse claims and said that he had been monitored for his well-being throughout. They say that while at the facility he was regularly examined by veterinary surgeons and that his weight remained stable. They say that investigators assessed Finlay's features and "found it may have a low proportion of wildcat genes" but not enough to consider it a Scottish wildcat. Ridiculous.

All domestic cats have some wildcat genes in them because they come from wildcats. Wildcats are their ancestors. There is no doubt in my mind that Finlay is a standard tabby kitten. A domestic cat. The North Wales police are acting idiotically and now trying to fudge the result by saying that Finlay had some wildcat in him.

As I said in the opening paragraph, this is another example of the UK police behaving badly and stupidly. If they only did their job and caught some criminals life would be a lot better in the UK. But they manage to catch just 5% of the criminals who've conducted criminal acts in this country. The criminals know that they will not be caught and the citizens of the UK are unsupported by the police. They are on their own.

Far too often UK police waste time on red herrings and escapades which are noncriminal when they should be focusing on crimes like burglary which they have completely abandoned and thefts.

British police officer wanted to Taser a cat and dog

A group of three British Metropolitan Police officers, PC Jonathan Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 34, and Joel Borders, 45, who has left the force, were recently in Westminster magistrates' court accused of sending "grossly racist, sexist, misogynistic" messages sometimes when on duty. 

The court was told that they indulged in rape fantasies of colleagues and vulnerable girls. PC Cobban, responded to Borders claim that he wanted to get "on guns so I can shoot some c***in the face!" by saying: "Me to. I want to Taser a cat and a dog to see which reacts better. Same with children. Zap zap you little f***ers."

Met police. Image: Pixabay.

People with Down's Syndrome were described as potential "target practice". There were separate homophobic slurs. They had these conversations on WhatsApp and part of that group was PC Wayne Couzens who is notorious for his abduction, rape and murder of Everard, 33, in March 2020 which led to his conviction and a whole-life sentence. He committed that crime while a serving police officer. It was the grossest breach of trust imaginable and his sentence is appropriate.

The three deny sending grossly offensive messages between April and August 2019. They say it was dark humour and in bad taste. Their defense lawyer said the comments did not reach the legal standard of "grossly offensive".

However, what caught my eye in this story, reported in The Times today, Friday, July 29, 2022, is that one of this trio of Metropolitan police officers was very keen to Taser a cat to see what happened. That is the kind of person that occasionally ends up being a police officer in the UK.

I must say, that my personal experience in dealing with the Metropolitan police is very poor. I have zero trust of them and I find them either very unhelpful or their behaviour is objectionable. Only about 5% of crime is detected in the UK with, as I understand it, an even smaller percent of those arrested being convicted and punished. The statistics are appallingly poor indicating a Metropolitan police force which is simply not functioning and certainly not protecting the public. 

About 1.6% of rapists are convicted! Almost zero. And clearly in this instance the police officers had no concept of animal welfare or acting morally. It is shocking. A sizeable percentage of the British public have given up on the police are feel alone and unprotected.

NYPD violently arrest a beloved busker with toy cats on the subway

NEWS AND COMMENT-NEW NEW YORK CITY, USA: The cats in this story are incidental to it but it caught my eye. A New York City subway saxophone busker, John Ajilo, has been operating on the subway for 5 years. He's been entertaining the millions of people who use this transit system and his act is called "Dancing Is Happiness". He operates out of the Herald Square subway spot.

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Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.

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The interesting twist to his performances that he has toy cats dancing in front of him. It looks a bit odd but like I said it catches the eye. And he does occupy quite a a lot of space but, that said, he's been there a long time and nobody has complained as far as we know.

 John Ajilo is arrested for allegedly doing nothing wrong. Image: Instagram user ppv_tahoe.

And then suddenly, the NYPD turn up in force and arrest him. Fortunately, a subway user videoed the encounter. And it's pretty brutal and uncomfortable. Initially he talks to the cops and then they suddenly grab hold of him. He shouts "I'm not doing anything wrong". He struggles and then the other cops join in and restrain him.

And it seems that the reason why they arrested this guy for apparently doing nothing wrong is that the New York City Mayor Eric Adams rode the New York City subway system last week for three hours plus and was shocked at what he saw. He saw a lot of unattended crime and decided on a crackdown. 

It seems that the police took it upon themselves to crack down on John Ajilo in a kind of cleanup process. But if he has done nothing wrong in terms of criminality then it is the police who have done something wrong: they have arrested him falsely. They falsely imprisoned him. And technically, the police should be liable for the crime of false imprisonment and assault.

We don't know why John Ajilo uses dancing cats as part of his act. It is probably because he realises that, on the Internet, cats are very popular and have been for ages. He probably saw them somewhere and decided to put them in his act to add a bit of colour and entertainment.

The general public who have seen the video question whether it is a useful use of resources for the police to arrest a busker in this way while serious crime soars in New York City and terrified commuters refuse to take subway trains. A series of high-profile crimes on the subway has left users with the feeling that the subway is unsafe and so they avoid it.

As is the case with the London Underground, there's been a 60% drop in users of the New York City subway since pre-pandemic times with roughly 3.4 million daily commuters using the system. This might be a permanent state of affairs as employees have adopted flexible working practices which means there is no longer the daily commute to work for a large number of people. 

This in turn means that there is going to have to be some fundamental change to the number of employees working on the subway and the number of trains running if it is to breakeven financially. The same problem exists in London.

Police trooper acts rapidly with commitment to catch escaping cat from car

I don't know why this Idaho state trooper was in this situation when a domestic cat in the back of a car escaped (update - I do now 👍: see their FB post below). And he stopped on the side of a freeway (a motorway in UK language). This would be the hard shoulder in the UK. This is a potentially dangerous place for both cat and trooper. Lucky, in a way, that the cat dived into the forest and not the other way onto the road. There is a question mark over why the cat was free inside the vehicle; not helpful and perhaps careless but maybe the cat escaped from a carrier.

Update: the FB post from the Idaho State Police tells us more. This is what the Facebook post says:

"Faster than a fleeing feline. And talk about a leap of faith! Trooper Llerenas fleet of foot kept a four-legged furball from dashing into a snowy North Idaho forest recently. A van traveling on I-90 has its side door come open and the Trooper saw several items fly onto the roadway. When the Trooper stopped the van, he found two people, two dogs, and a cat all inside. 

Turns out, both people were in possession of multiple controlled substances and eventually were booked into jail on drug charges. Local shelters took safe custody of the pets, and while Trooper Llerenas waited for the shelter folks to arrive, both dogs were as friendly as they could be. The cat, however, had other plans. 

When Mr. Kitty made a run for it, Trooper Llerenas also acted fast and caught the fleeing feline before the little critter could get lost or harmed. Trooper Llerenas said he literally took a “leap of faith” to catch the cat, and it worked! 

If you listen closely, however, after he catches Mr. Kitty and brings him safely back to the vehicle, Trooper Llerenas tells the feline that they were friends, but after the leap into the snow, maybe not so much. 😊 If this brought a smile to your face, feel free to share. And as always, thanks for your support."

Note: These are videos from other websites. They are embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. There are two the same in case one goes kaput 👌.

It looks icy cold and there is snow everywhere. The conditions were hostile and this cat wanted to dive into the forest which would have been the end of him due to starvation and neglect. And I think that this state trooper realised that unless he acted super-quickly and grabbed the cat before it entered the forest, he would never see the cat again. 

It was a do or die moment and he did it. That's why his behaviour is, I think, very impressive at that moment. He was fully committed to catching the cat, there and then with no exceptions, with no possibility of failure. There was a lot of pressure on the guy to grab the cat successfully and only just made it.

Screenshot.

I don't know whether he caught the cat by the tail. It might have happened that way. It looks rather aggressive and dangerous for the cat but the circumstances dictated that this man went all out to grab the cat come what may.

Cat owner calls the police because her two cats were fighting and one of them attacked her

OMAHA, USA-NEWS AND COMMENT: This is, for me, a case of very poor cat management. It appears to me that the woman simply lost control. The story also points to the problems that can arise when you adopt a new cat into the home of a resident cat i.e. your first cat. It can go badly wrong.

Feline aggression. Generic image. Not the cat. Image: Pixabay.

In this instance a couple of cats living in an apartment near 37th and Dodge streets, were fighting. The 52-year-old woman owner tried to intervene but one of her cats retaliated when the owner called timeout. I'm not sure what that means in this instance but it seems that the owner tried to intervene and was quite strict with the cat in telling him off, who, rather than submitting, retaliated and attacked the woman.

RELATED: Famously violent cat ‘Lux’ may have been systematically abused by man living in the home.

As a consequence, the owner called the police for help. Mistake 🤔. What were the police going to and in any case, it was not a police matter? There was no crime. The woman then said that she was able to lock the aggressive cat in a bedroom. The woman received a multitude of superficial scratches and treated at hospital. The cat was taken into custody by officers from the Nebraska Humane Society. We are not told what happened to the cat. I hope he is rehomed.

Comment: it seems to me that this was a house where the two cats were not getting on. There was a fight and the owner tried to intervene without success. One of the cats fought back and scratched the lady. It all seems rather typical. The problem appears to have originated in incompatibility between two resident cats. The woman mishandled the "argument" between the cats.

It would have been better if she had simply placed one cat in one room and the other cat in another room to allow them to cool down and used thick gloves for protection. She could have tried some tricks to stop the confrontation such as introducing a favorite toy to play with and/or catnip and/or some treats. These may have cooled tempers and distracted the cats.

If there is an underlying and unresolvable hostility between the cat then she would have to seriously consider rehoming one of them. That would certainly resolve any simmering hostility between the two.

It was, in retrospect, ill-advised to try and tell off a cat that was in an aggressive confrontation with another cat. It may be the case that the aggressive cat transferred their aggressivity towards the lady in a kind of repositioned or redirected aggression. The aggression was meant to be made against the other cat but it ended up being made against the woman.

Waseca Police Department will no longer transport and impound feral cats. Discuss.

NEWS AND COMMENT-WASECA, MINNESOTA, USA: This is an interesting little snippet of a feral cat story coming out of America. The Waseca Police Department has in the past been handling feral cats; specifically transporting and impounding feral cats. It seems that they have been involved in the management of feral cats by taking them off the streets and sticking them in shelters. A version of animal control as I understand it.

Generic police car image in the public domain.

Waseca Police Dept. announced:

Starting today, with the guidance of the City Council at their January 18th meeting, The Waseca Police Department will only transport and impound cats with collars. Hopefully, their collars will also have a City of Waseca license on it since cats should be licensed with the Waseca Police Department (City of Waseca ordinance 95.17). The Waseca County Sheriff’s deputies will no longer impound cats from the County.

They've announced a change in their policies. They have declared on Facebook that they will no longer be transporting and impounding cat without collars because of the cost to their organisation and because it's inhumane to place feral cats in shelters. There is also the additional and unjustified cost they say of keeping feral cats in shelters where they will often be unadopted. No doubt many of them are killed anyway.

As we start 2022, we would like to share with you some important decisions regarding the impoundment of feral cats by...

Posted by Waseca Police Department on Wednesday, January 26, 2022

They refer to "cats with collars". What they are saying, on my understanding, is that feral cats don't have collars and therefore it's a sign that they are feral cats. Whereas domestic cats have collars and therefore they don't mind transporting domestic cats to shelters.

I find this to be very odd. What percentage of domestic cats have collars? It might be quite a low figure. There are many stray cat without collars who are owned cats.

On the basis of what I have read their policy is too imprecise to be effective. If it simply turns on whether the cat wears a collar or not it is certainly not going to work properly. 

The police have addressed this issue by requesting that residents get a collar for their cat:

Here are some suggestions: If you are a cat owner, please license your cat and place that license on a collar and put it on your cat(s). There are some exceptionally good collars on the market that will not bring harm to your cats.

Note: it seems that they have a cat licensing policy in the city. I hate to say it but cat licensing does not work; too hard to enforce.

They received some reaction from residents of the area. My gut feeling is that the residents don't understand the change in policy properly.

Arguably, in any case, the police should not be involved in managing feral and domestic cats in this way. That should be the work of people specialising animal welfare such as TNR volunteers and Waseca County Animal Humane Society. There are many charities that deal with these matters. In America, as I understand it, it is the ASPCA.

The police should be focusing on crimes against animals, people and property. That is their core business. Rescuing feral cats would seem to be outside of their core business.

Comments please 😉.

Man allegedly steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA disinterested.

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a disturbing story from Gainsborough, UK, which is in the Midlands. The locals living in the area allege that an unnamed man (update: he calls himself Ian Catmando and he is 56 years old) steals cats that happen to be in the street, puts them into a trolley and takes them home. His home appears to be in very poor condition, surrounded by a chicken wire and barbed wire fence with cat poop in the garden and apparently fleas all over the windows on the inside of the home. 

Man with cat on lead. This is the man. To be frank he looks and sounds as if he is bonkers. Image: Mirror.co.uk.

That's the picture which has been painted, which translates to one man stealing someone else's cat and then hoarding them. He claims that he is training cats to be therapy cats! On one occasion a photo was taken of him with four young cats all harnessed together outside the home. It looks bizarre and it is bizarre.

This is what it looks like inside this man's home. We don't know who provided the photo:

Man allegedly steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA disinterested. Inside his home. Photo: ?

Protests have been mounted by locals:

Protestors demand that the cats be released. Photo: Michelle Page.

What is most bizarre and troubling, however, is that citizens have reported the matter to the RSPCA and the police and they appear to be disinterested. On the face of it, on the reports that I have read, this is a straight case of theft (Theft Act) combined with potential animal welfare issues which could be animal abuse or animal cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. This is alleged criminal behaviour.

Man steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA allegedly disinterested. Picture: The Mirror.

We are looking at potentially more than one crime here so why is the RSPCA and the police apparently disinterested? The neighbours say that it has been going on for about four years (but see below)! Apparently, there are up to 50 cats or more inside the home (he claims he has 87). The problem has been highlighted by Michelle Page of Page's Pet Rescue. Michelle says that what she has seen is horrendous. She has also said that the alleged thief and cat hoarder has been known to walk to the village of Blyton, over 5 miles away with a trolley full of cats!

She said:

"I could see one of the cats looked like it had a big abscess and called the RSPCA but nothing has been done. He tells people the cats have cat flu and FIV."

Apparently, this bizarre behavior has been going on for about 18 months. Melanie Barker of Gainsborough Feral Rescue has spoken to the man who said that the RSPCA gave him the cats because they couldn't be rehomed as they had cat flu. Comment: that sounds highly unlikely, in fact ridiculous, and I cannot see how it can be true.

Update Sept 14th 2021: 12 cats were released from the house and one died. They were in a very poor state with the usual neglect health issues such as fleas and URIs. The protest continues as there are many more cats to be released for medical treatment and ultimately rehoming.

Update Sept 17th: Here's Ian who says "I’m a professional cat carer and have been since 1992". He walks up to 15 cats at a time in leads!

Ian. Photo: Metro.co.uk.

Melanie Barker said that she has contacted the police, Environmental Health and the RSPCA. Concerned people are waiting for action. Come on RSPCA pull your digit out.

Source: Mirror.co.uk