Couple taking care of cat allegedly eat it

Canadian Press
Apr. 18, 2005 05:20 PM

WINDSOR, Ont. - A woman who left her home in the temporary care of a couple returned to make a gruesome discovery in the refrigerator: a pot containing the remains of what appeared to be a cooked cat.

"It is strange, there is no question about it," Windsor police Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton said Monday about the alleged killing and eating of the pet. "We've seen animal abuse before ... but nothing like this."

Officers were called to a west-end duplex Sunday night by a woman who had left her apartment in the care of a 24-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman. advertisement



The tenant came home to find the place abandoned and in disarray. Then she looked in the fridge.

"It was absolutely disgusting, I couldn't believe it," said neighbor Sherry Hughes, who entered the apartment and saw the animal's remains.

Police suspect it's all that's left of Prowler, who lived with the Hughes family and went missing less than a week earlier.

"It's very upsetting, very, very heartbreaking," said Hughes, adding her children and grandmother are extremely distraught.

Flyers of the missing cat remained posted on utility poles in the area Monday.

"Even the bums in downtown Windsor don't lower themselves to that," said Jen Birdgen, whose family lives in the adjoining duplex unit.

The act of eating an animal isn't illegal, said John Roushorne, general manager of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society, but how it got into the pot is an entirely different matter.

McNorton said police believe the animal was killed in the bathtub and then hung from the showerhead.

The couple that lived temporarily in the house were interviewed by detectives Monday morning and released pending further investigation.

McNorton said police could lay unlawful killing of an animal charges, a summary offence punishable by up to six months jail and or a $2,000 fine.

Roushorne said if cruelty can be proven, more severe penalties can be sought independently by the humane society.

I still wanna try human one day. Think what you will, but it's still just another animal.