You have got to be kidding

[wyomingtim]

http://www.wftv.com/news/4035165/detail.html

Wal-Mart Employees Charged With Shooting Cat On Manager's Orders

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Two Wal-Mart employees who police say followed a manager's orders to shoot and kill a stray cat have been charged with federal animal cruelty.
The men, both assistant managers at the Supercenter, were arrested and released after a court appearance Wednesday. Christopher Anderson, 29, and Jeffrey Hardin, 21, told police the store's manager ordered them to get rid of the animal that was living in a storage trailer behind their store.

All managers potentially involved in the incident have been suspended without pay pending an internal investigation and could be fired, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber.

"We were outraged when we learned of this incident. This kind of action is completely inconsistent with the way we do business," she said.

A truck driver who reported the incident said he saw store employees placing what he believed to be a dead animal in shrink wrap a day after he heard workers joking about shooting the cat.

Store manager Darrel Weitzel told police he had told some of his employees to get a gun and get rid of the cat after attempts to coax it from the trailer failed, according to a police report.

Anderson and Hardin were scheduled for a hearing Jan. 4.
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Let me get this right. It is legal to euthanize (sp?) animals, and some would argue even humans, but it is a federal crime to shoot and kill a stray cat? That is just plain screwed up. I guess their mistake was talking about it afterwards.

 

[Whiskers]

Its a federal crime to kill a stray cat?? The prisons will be full of cat killers. Rapist, murders get set free early to make room for the killers of stray cats??!!

 

[Tom]

I think stray cats are one of the big threats to birds and lots of birds are going extinct. They should look for bird feathers in the truck, that will help defend them. Kill a cat, save a bunch of birds.

 

[Elkhunter]

Weather they were told to do it or not, you don't need to be so stupid to actually do it. If my boss told me that, I think I would have told him to do it himself. Yes it is only a stray cat, but what about public endangerment or discharging a firearm within city limits. Fire all three of them.

 

[dgibson]

All the managers have now been fired, and WM is donating $10k to local animal shelters. The prior article isn't quite correct; the charges are on a state level, not federal. The prosecutor hasn't decided whether he will take the case to court, however, because Indiana's law reads that beating an animal is considered cruelty, and they didn't beat the animal. They shot it multiple times instead. This naturally puts the local animal lovers in an all-out tizzy.

While I have zero use for stray cats, I agree with Elky in that it was a dumb thing to do, just from a PR standpoint if for no other reason. They could have easily had one of the shelters pick it up, or trapped it and took it to the shelter, or even trapped it and took it to the boondocks to shoot. Doing it on store property in plain sight like that was just begging for trouble.

What's really funny, though, is watching my beloved coworkers carry on about how evil these guys are for shooting the cat, all the while sporting "pro choice" stickers on their cars. It's OK to kill babies but cats are just like people, man. |oo