The Juneau man who tried to euthanize his cat in the parking lot of the Gastineau Humane Society likely will not prosecuted for animal cruelty.
Matthew Musslewhite, executive director of the animal shelter, said the man arrived Tuesday morning and asked to euthanize his terminally ill, 10-year-old, female, domestic short hair calico. But he said shelter staff told him that they couldn’t do it.
“We don’t actually have a veterinarian on staff here to perform that service,” Musslewhite said. “The local veterinary clinics, of which there are a number of them, all provide that service to their clients. The owner of this cat was welcome to owner-release the animal to us, and we could have provided care to it, even end-of-life care. But he chose not to do that.”
Lt. Dave Campbell of the Juneau Police Department said the owner had just come from the veterinary clinic and couldn’t afford the $600 euthanasia. City Attorney Amy Mead also said the owner, an older man, was offered hospice care at the shelter, but he felt that it would only prolong the cat’s pain and suffering. Authorities declined to name the man because he wasn’t charged.
Musslewhite said what happened next in the shelter parking lot was witnessed by at least three staff members in the first and the second floor offices. The man put the cat on the tailgate of his truck and then tried to kill it using his weight and a metal snow broom handle.
“He was basically jumping up and down on the animal trying to kill it,” Musslewhite said. “On the back of his truck, basically jumping up and down on it. Not with his feet, but with the force of his body.“
Campbell said the cat was killed when the handle was pushed down on the animal’s neck vertebrae.
“In the interview with the officer, the guy said that when he was overseas, that was the method they used to use for, like, small animals and rodents and he knew it to be a relatively humane way to put the animal down. So, that’s what he did,” Campbell said. “He said, yeah, it was a bad location choice for him. But he did it in a way that he thought was the most humane way possible.”
Animal Control officers intervened and the cat was taken to a nearby veterinary clinic for emergency care, but she died. Animal Control and Juneau Police officers interviewed the owner before he was released at the scene.
Campbell said both city and state prosecutors were consulted, and neither believed there was enough evidence to pursue the case further. Mead said they likely would not prosecute this particular owner for doing what he could for his terminally ill cat.
Already disturbed by the incident in the parking lot, Musslewhite said shelter staff became even more upset when they learned the owner would not be charged for animal cruelty.
“Unfortunately, if a case like this cannot be prosecuted for what it clearly is, which is animal cruelty, then the laws of the State of Alaska are clearly behind the times and need to be changed,” Musslewhite said. “No animal should have to suffer because of an owner’s refusal to pay for a humane means of euthanasia.”
Mead said some of the facts reported by Gastineau Humane Society in a press release were not the same as reported by the Juneau Police Department, including whether the cat died at the scene or later at the vet clinic. Further, she said police have already concluded their investigation.
Clarification: The headline has been changed to indicate the man was attempting to euthanize his cat, rather than saying he did euthanize the cat.
