Cats poisoned with antifreeze
Austin, MN (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Jul 31, 2005
County: Mower
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: William Conner, III
Sympathy for a Brownsdale man charged with a felony for poisoning stray cats is as hard to find in Vista Village as one of the manufactured homes without animals.
William Conner III, 48, made his first appearance on July 31 in Mower County District Court, where he faces a single felony charge of cruelty to animals. Conner is accused of leaving a mixture of leftover meat and fish from Austin's Holiday Inn with rat poison and anti-freeze outside his home in the summer of 2005.
Conner and his sons experimented with the toxic mixtures because stray cats were a big problem in the park, the criminal complaint alleges. Conner's neighbors agree the cats were and remain a concern, but they were also pleased to see the criminal charge filed.
"If it was a sudden death, it would be one thing, but they suffer for four or five days," said Bill Bachelder, the groundskeeper for the park, whose own home has become something of a neighborhood humane society.
Bachelder and his wife Sheila moved to the park two years ago when their aging dog got sick. The park was then under a different owner, and the Bachelders had to beg to get a pet inside, putting a $150 deposit down. Since then, the park has seen a steady stream of animals as neighbors have asked for and received the same pet privilege as the Bachelders, and new residents have moved to the park because pets aren't allowed in many apartments.
The Bachelders said some residents have snuck their pets in to avoid paying the deposit, and sometimes kick them out when the landlord comes around. Others have left their cats behind when they've moved away, and others put them outside when they grow too big to be enjoyed or too sick to care for.
Some in the park have blamed the overpopulation on a well-meaning neighbor whose home contains a lot of cats; estimates ranged between two dozen and a hundred, but the consensus is there are fewer now than last year. The woman lives across the street from Conner.
"She's a wonderful lady," Bachelder said, "but she thinks feeding cats is taking care of them."
Instead, caring for the neighborhood cats has fallen on Bachelder, who said he's helped more than 100 in two years, and has shot another seven who couldn't be saved. He pays $8 to get rid of a cat's fleas, $6 for a vaccination, and $70 to spay or $45 to neuter the cats, which are nursed to health at their home and placed with a new owner or returned to roam the park if they haven't grown accustomed to domestic life.
"I can show you probably a thousand dollars of vet bills in the last year, and they're not even my animals," Bachelder said. " ... I don't know. I'm foolish that way."
Despite the concern from neighbors last year, it took some time to get anything done about the dying cats. Sheila said it was only when the Mower County Humane Society intervened that law enforcement made a visit to the park. The criminal case wasn't filed until June 21, but Mower County's chief deputy prosecutor Eric Herendeen said that was due to a mistake in the filing; he thought it had been charged months earlier.
Herendeen said he understands Vista Village had a problem with wild cats, but leaving a food and poison mixture as bait was criminal.
"There is a way to take care of it," he said Monday after court, "and this guy probably took care of it the wrong way."
Opinions vary on what to do about the overpopulation problem. Raveill said the owners should get their cats spayed or neutered. The Bachelders said the same, and that the owners get their pets vaccinated. They also suggested a Brownsdale animal control officer or a city pet license. Bill Bachelder said it would go a long way if the residents used their heads.
"It's just common sense," he said. "Everything's cute when it's little, but they don't stay little for long." References
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