On June 10th, 2013, a North Ridgeville, Ohio humane officer responded to a call from a homeowner regarding a family of feral cats living in a woodpile in her backyard. The humane officer arrived, located the mother cat and five eight week old kittens, told the homeowner and her four children, ranging in age from five months to seven years, that the cats were going to "kitty heaven," retrieved a gun from his truck and shot all five kittens to death at point blank range, in front of the screaming children.
In an interview after the incident, the homeowner said, "They started screaming and crying because they heard the gunshots. They started screaming, "Mommy, he’s killing the kittens."
The "humane" officer immediately came under fire, pun intended, and the NRPD had to take down its Facebook page due to backlash from the story. However, subsequent to the incident, the Police Chief had this to say, "NRPD recognizes the concerns of those who believe feral cats should not be killed for simply trying to survive, but... research and other animal organizations accept shooting as an acceptable means of euthanasia. The actions [of the humane officer] were appropriate and he will not be disciplined for the incident."
The homeowner responded that she "assumed he would be trapping them or something and taking them to a shelter and they would be humanely euthanized if they were not adopted.”
Ohio law states: "No person shall torture an animal, deprive one of necessary sustenance, unnecessarily or cruelly beat, needlessly mutilate or kill, or impound or confine an animal without supplying it during such confinement with a sufficient quantity of...food and water."
The mother cat ran and was not physically harmed. The emotional harm can only be surmised.
It must also be surmised that to the humane officer the litter of kittens was nothing more than kitty litter.
The homeowner said, "The kittens were just sitting there. They didn’t have to die."
*Title quote by David Wong, John Dies at the End
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