Cat tortured, strangled
Cookeville, TN (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Sep 28, 2010
County: Putnam
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Jason Donald Davis
A Fisk Road man was arrested yesterday on animal cruelty charges after he allegedly tortured a friend's pet cat.
Jason Donald Davis, 32, was arrested by Cookeville Police Officer Justin Long after the officer investigated a complaint filed by a Breeding Avenue resident.
The complainant told the officer that when she came home on Tuesday, a neighbor told her that she had witnessed a man "strangling her cat to death."
That witness also told the officer about what she had seen. She said she saw a man who was wearing blue jeans and a military type field jacket holding the complainant's pet cat. She said he had the cat's head down on a rock and the cat was squirming and hissing.
The witness confronted the man, asking what he was doing and allegedly, he told her "I love kitties."
He also told her he was a friend of the cat's owner. As the witness talked to him, he picked the cat up and held it in his arms, though it appeared to be lifeless, the witness told the officer. The man walked away with the cat in his arms, she said.
Later that day, the witness heard the owner calling her cat, and she told her what she had seen. The owner knew the man and told the officer that he had been a friend of the family.
Officer Long then went to the home of Jason Donald Davis and interviewed him. He denied having hurt the cat and said it was still alive and "not injured at all" when he left the area.
Later, the owner found her cat near a barn across the road from her home.
A veterinarian found that the animal had suffered severe injuries, including a broken jaw and severe head trauma, according to a warrant taken by the officer.
Davis is charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal, which is defined in the warrant as "conduct which is done or carried out in a depraved and sadistic manner and which tortures or maims an animal."
Davis was booked at the Putnam jail, where his bond was set at $5,000.
Read more: Herald Citizen - Man allegedly tortures cat arrested for animal cruelty References |
