(Normally a story like this would make my head explode, but my head is apparently too disgusted to blow.)
This incident sounds like a sick joke in “Policy Academy 6” that ended up on the cutting room floor, but unfortunately, it really happened.
Dispatched to a home to deal with a feral mother cat and her five adorable kittens discovered in the yard, Bob Accorti, the Humane Officer for the North Ridgeville Police Department, told the homeowner that the animal shelters were full but that he would make sure that the cats went to “kitty heaven.” He then too out his revolver and shot the five kittens, estimated to be between 8 and 10 weeks old. The homeowner’s children, aged 5 months to 7 years, watched in horror from inside the house.
The mother cat escaped during the slaughter.
After a complaint of animal cruelty was raised by the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, NRPD Chief Mike Freeman responded that no discipline was necessary or appropriate, as he reasoned that “animal organizations accept shooting as an acceptable means of euthanasia.”
The chief did concede that Accorti could have communicated better with the homeowner about how the kittens would be killed.
Ya think???
Be thankful for small mercies: Accorti was the Humane Officer. I assume one of the non-Humane officers would have stomped the kittens to death.
Let’s see…
Was shooting the kittens necessary?
Ethics Alarms 