Quote :

"A state trooper who wanted to stop animals from climbing on his vehicles trapped his neighbor's 5-month-old kitten and shot it to death. The court filing says Houston was bothered by something climbing on vehicles parked at his home in Granite Falls, a small community about 170 miles west of the Triangle. He had also caught a glimpse of "an unknown animal" that jumped out at him "during the hours of darkness," according to his appeal. The trooper, who said he was concerned for the safety of his three young sons, baited a steel trap with ham and captured a small domestic cat. When Houston tried to remove the animal, which did not have tags, it scratched him, according to his appeal. Then he killed it. "

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/29/505974/trooper-kills-a-kitten-and-loses.html#ixzz0pN9C8zfB

Seems a bit overzealous

5/29/2010 9:35:38 PM

Thank God the cat wasn't black. It would be an even bigger shit storm then.

5/29/2010 9:38:22 PM

It would've been OK if he'd run the kitten over in an intersection doing 120 mph.

[Edited on May 29, 2010 at 9:41 PM. Reason : ]

5/29/2010 9:41:16 PM

Poor kitten

5/29/2010 9:42:27 PM

Quote :

"who said he was concerned for the safety of his three young sons"

Pussy.

5/29/2010 9:46:02 PM

vs.

5/29/2010 9:47:26 PM

Quote :

"HOURS OF DARKNESS"

[Edited on May 29, 2010 at 9:47 PM. Reason : tbdv]

5/29/2010 9:47:31 PM

^^ That cat looks like it would FUCK. YOU. UP. For realz.

5/29/2010 9:53:59 PM

i told me neighbor i would shoot her cat if it climbed on my car one more time, fuck cats

5/29/2010 9:55:56 PM

Well, at least he's being charged with a count animal cruelty.

Oh wait, he isn't.

Fuck cops.

5/29/2010 9:59:36 PM

I would cut the paws off of a dog that came into my yard, so it will wobble home on bloody stumps

Fuckin' dogs

[Edited on May 29, 2010 at 10:15 PM. Reason : Not really, I like animals, but think its funny that certain people hate cats so much]

5/29/2010 10:00:26 PM

the guy should get a medal, not lose his job.

Fuck cats.

5/29/2010 10:00:27 PM

^^^

Quote :

"Former Trooper Shawn C. Houston was charged in October with cruelty to animals and injury to real property, both misdemeanors, according to court records. The Highway Patrol dismissed him in January."

Quote :

"Records show District Court Judge Carlton Terry Jr. granted Houston a prayer for judgment continued, a legal finding of guilt that does not impose any penalty. The trooper paid $125 in court costs."

5/29/2010 10:02:44 PM

Great POJ for shooting a fucking kitten in the head.

I'm going to go shoot his goddamn pet in the head and then we'll see if he thinks I should get a POJ.

5/29/2010 10:10:48 PM

The cat threatened his life!!

5/29/2010 10:15:17 PM

so tuff

5/29/2010 10:16:33 PM

The trooper probably saw this in the hours of darkness and got scurred:

5/29/2010 10:18:30 PM

so was he like crawling around in the pitch black dark? who checks their steel animal traps in the fucking dark?

5/29/2010 10:23:25 PM

Rambo, John J

5/29/2010 10:24:04 PM

I dub this "fuck cops" week.

5/29/2010 10:37:08 PM

i can understand. things are always more frightening during the hours of darkness

5/29/2010 10:47:08 PM

This is true.

5/29/2010 11:31:53 PM

I'm not a cop hater and I think many cops are decent people BUT a fair number of cops are faggots like this one that got into law enforcement to be internet tuff. He probably grew up bullying younger kids and abusing animals. I'm glad he lost his job (he deserves much worse) and I can't wait to see him in bojangles cooking up fries.

5/29/2010 11:42:02 PM

What would happen if you killed a cops kitten with a hand gun?

5/29/2010 11:48:57 PM

The pedestal we're putting cats and dogs on these days makes me sick. The worst that should have happened here was dude gets a little psychological eval for being a lil on the side.

5/30/2010 12:02:28 AM

Talgate gets it.

5/30/2010 12:14:56 AM

^^ I don't know. If he's willing to shoot a scared animal in the head for scratching him, it makes me wonder what he would do to a scared kid that tried to bolt away from him during an arrest.

Quote :

"Evans, her husband and children buried Rowdy on their property after a modest funeral. To this day, she said, Houston has not apologized. "

I think this is the part of the story that bothers me the most. Dude can't at least apologize for shooting their pet in the head? Just be like, "Yo, my bad, I thought it was a tiger."

5/30/2010 12:49:10 AM

sounds to me like this guy wasn't scared of a hissing kitten, and that part about the "no tags, might have rabies" is likely just a cover story. my guess is that he was tired of finding scratches on his car, and decided to make a permanent fix.

of course, the more reasonable thing to do would have been to tell the neighbors to keep their cat out of his yard. on the flip side, if the neighbors had kept their cat on their property, they'd still have a cat.

also, this has state trooper written all over it.

5/30/2010 3:30:09 AM

There are two things about this story that shock me:

1 - That a police officer was actually charged correctly for what he did.

2 - That he lost his job, also the correct punishment.

Usually when this kind of thing happens the guy goes on "paid administrative leave" until a "thorough investigation" can occur and then once the public shit storm has blown over it's back to crooked ass business as usual.

5/30/2010 3:34:14 AM

Oops, I forgot to post this earlier.

Also, I am thoroughly disappointed that nobody else has posted it already:

5/30/2010 6:20:16 AM

Quote :

"it makes me wonder what he would do to a scared kid that tried to bolt away from him during an arrest."

He would do the right thing.

5/30/2010 6:30:50 AM

Quote :

"The pedestal we're putting cats and dogs on these days makes me sick. The worst that should have happened here was dude gets a little psychological eval for being a lil on the side."

Quote :

"Talgate gets it."

I dearly hope that Talage and GGMon get cancer in their eyes.
Seriously. They don't get it.

5/30/2010 7:23:58 AM

so did we discover that indy = willy nilly while i've been gone lately?

5/30/2010 7:57:00 AM

Quote :

"of course, the more reasonable thing to do would have been to tell the neighbors to keep their cat out of his yard."

I think a lot of states don't really have regulations on cats and leashes/property boundary limits.

5/30/2010 9:16:29 AM

oh.

i thought he got caught masturbating on the job or something

5/30/2010 9:20:41 AM

surprised to see he got what he deserved

LOL

5/30/2010 9:26:05 AM

now, if he had shot someone he'd still have a job. hell he'd probably get put on "administrative leave" and get paid for doing nothing for a few weeks too

5/30/2010 9:32:43 AM

don't you know - for women - animal life > human life.

5/30/2010 10:21:16 AM

if they are going to charge the officer they should fine the owner for violating leash laws

cats shouldn't get a free pass, fuck cats

[Edited on May 30, 2010 at 10:23 AM. Reason : .]

5/30/2010 10:23:21 AM

That would work if there were leash laws for cats in Granite Falls, but there are not. If this were in Cary then there would be a leash law they could fine her for.

5/30/2010 11:05:35 AM

Even then they'd only be able to fine her if law enforcement or animal control was called multiple times.

5/30/2010 11:14:32 AM

according to the internet there are county wide leash laws in caldwell county

i would have shot the cat too

5/30/2010 11:24:05 AM

Yall are fucking mean. I love pets. Every single one of you fuckers who laughed at this thread will pay. Pay you shall. Oh yes.

5/30/2010 11:55:14 AM

Quote :

"I think a lot of states don't really have regulations on cats and leashes/property boundary limits."

leash/property boundary laws or not, i wouldn't allow a neighbor's cat to walk all over my car. I wouldn't kill it the first time I saw it happen, of course--i'd talk to the neighbor. i wouldn't permit it to be an ongoing problem, though.

5/30/2010 2:44:33 PM

Quote :

"cats shouldn't get a free pass, fuck cats"

Your god doesn't like you very much right now, I bet.

5/30/2010 2:51:54 PM

i like animals too, but when my neighbors cats were running around the neighborhood unleashed and scratching up my paint i called animal control and told her that i would shoot the next cat i found on my car

fuck people who think that since its a cat they can let it run around wherever it wants

5/30/2010 2:56:29 PM

Most cat owners don't think like that. And taking your aggression out on the animal to teach the owner a lesson shows just how much of an asshole you are.

5/30/2010 2:59:35 PM

it wouldn't be to teach a lesson, it would be to stop the cat from scratching my car to shit.

its just an animal

[Edited on May 30, 2010 at 3:02 PM. Reason : .]

5/30/2010 3:00:53 PM

Thank you for proving my point.

5/30/2010 3:01:54 PM

and actually i wouldnt have shot it, i would have just trapped it and then dropped the trap in a trashcan full of water like i did with squirrels that were tearing up the house

5/30/2010 3:02:14 PM