Attorneys/Judges
| Prosecutor(s): | Tiffany Wasserburger | | Judge(s): | James Worden |
Cat kicked down stairs, another beaten
Scottsbluff, NE (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jan 23, 2009
County: Scotts Bluff
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Dustin Teahon
In a groundbreaking ruling, a Scotts Bluff County judge has permanently removed an abused pet from a home and ordered that it be housed at the Panhandle Humane Society.
During a hearing on Thursday, Judge James Worden ruled that the cat's owner must relinquish ownership because the owner's boyfriend has a history of animal and domestic violence. In addition, he also ruled that the cat, Max, could not be adopted by the woman's parents.
Worden ruled that while the owner never abused the animal and obviously had feelings for the pet, the woman's boyfriend, Dustin Teahon, 21, posed a future risk to the animal. Worden said that allowing the woman to have the cat would be irresponsible and would be putting the cat "in harm's way." He said it's the woman's choice if she wants to continue a relationship with Teahon, but that the cat needs to be somewhere safe.
Teahon pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic assault and two counts of animal cruelty in a January incident and will be sentenced on April 9.
In the January incident, Teahon kicked the cat down a basement stairs and assaulted the 18-year-old woman. Following the incidents, the woman obtained a protection order barring Teahon from contact with her. Protection orders are court directives often requested by victims of domestic violence to halt abusive behavior.
In the protection order request, the woman stated that prior to the domestic assault that she had brought home a second cat, a 10-week old kitten named Diddy, to join Max. She noticed a cut around Max's mouth, and when she asked Teahon about it, he told her that Max wouldn't stop scratching the couch and "he smacked him" to make the cat stop. The following day the woman returned home to find that one of Diddy's eyes and the side of its head was swollen. Again, Teahon told the woman that he had "smacked" the cat because it had scratched him. A day later, Diddy died.
A couple of days later, the two were involved in a fight and the woman stated that she was afraid for her life.
During Thursday's hearing, Dr. Joe Skavdahl testified that when he examined Max, he found the animal walked abnormally, possibly caused by neurological trauma, and also had a cut on its lip. He said if the abuse continued, the animal would most likely die.
Scottsbluff Police Officer Brandi Brunz testified that she did the follow-up investigation regarding the domestic abuse incident and that the woman told Brunz that Teahon had abused her and her two cats. Brunz said that the woman didn't try to protect the cats from the abuse and didn't take either of the cats in for medical attention.
Deputy County Attorney Tiffany Wasserburger said that one of the jobs of the state is to protect those who can't protect themselves. She said the cat had no way of protecting itself and that if the animal was given back to the woman, even though the woman never injured the animal herself, the chance that the cat would be abused again by Teahon or possibly killed was too much of a risk.
Worden agreed and ordered that the cat remain at the shelter in an effort to find owners who would properly care for it and keep it safe. The ruling appears to be one of the first of its kind in the region and possibly the state.
Bob Downey, executive director of the Capital Humane Society in Lincoln for the past 25 years, said he has heard about a number of abuse cases that involved pets, but this is the first he's heard of in which the owner had to give up the pet.
"I applaud a judge for being proactive if this is what he thought needed to be done in order to protect a pet," Downey said.
Mark Langan, vice president of field operations for the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha, said its investigators routinely receive court orders to remove animals from a home because of abusive situations. He said they investigate hundreds of cases a year, but that this is the first case that he has seen in which a pet was removed and the owner had to forfeit their ownership rights. Langan also praised Worden's ruling.
The ruling in the case comes a few days after a proposed law to protect pets in domestic violence situations was defeated in the Legislature. The law would have let judges include pets in protection orders sought by domestic violence victims. Under Legislative Bill 83, judges also could have barred abusers from harming or killing pets owned by the victim or victims' children.
The bill fell one vote short of advancing to the second round of debate. State Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln said she doesn't know whether she will try to bring the bill up again this year.
She argued that the change would have benefited people suffering from domestic violence by protecting something precious to them. Opponents said the bill would have elevated animals to the status of children and other household members. References |
