The defence say:
A 911 call reporting an injured cat in a yard ended up with the cat dead of a gunshot wound. It happened in North Catasauqua, just north of Allentown, Penn. The cat’s name was Sugar, and she lived with her owner just a few doors down.
“She knew her name,” said owner Tom Newhart. “If you’d call her, she’d come to you.”
A North Catasauqua policeman responded to the call and evaluated the situation. According to the Northampton District Attorney, the cop noted injuries to the cat’s hind legs and that she was trailing blood. He made the decision then and there to put the cat down…
“Officer Purcell made a decision to — in his judgment — humanely end the cat’s life and suffering,” announced Northampton DA John Morganelli, at a news conference. “Officer Purcell fired a single shot from his department-issued .38 caliber service revolver, instantly killing the cat.”
But the prosecution say:
North Catasagua police officer Leighton Pursell said the cat hissed at him, which made him fear for his safety, so he pulled out his shotgun and shot Sugar in the neck. He then tossed the carcass in a Dumpster without trying to find its owner.
Local law apparently says that for an animal to be euthanised by the police then two or more people must agree that the injuries are severe enough to warrant it. But an investigation showed his decision was unwarranted.
Morganelli said his investigation revealed that Sugar wasn’t as seriously injured as initially believed, and a veterinarian’s postmortem report showed that Sugar wasn’t hurt much at all, save for the gunshot wound.
The officer has been cited – the equivalent of a parking ticket, essentially a slap on the wrist – but his lawyers are fighting that because it will look bad on his record: as bad as the bad publicity his force would get for his actions.
In most small towns, there are pictures of firefighters and police rescuing animals who are in danger or injured. But you won’t find those photos in the small township of North Catasauqua, just on the outskirts of Allentown, where an officer feared a six-year-old Tabby that weighed no more than eight pounds.
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May 27, 2016 at 6:20 pm