PEQUANNOCK -- Tom Van Wingerden says he loves animals -- and so he was just showing some love one May morning in 2005 when he reached under the deck of his farmhouse and pulled out three newborn kittens.
Although the kittens were just hours old, the mother -- a stray -- was nowhere to be found. The umbilical cord was still wrapped around the litter, and one of the cats had been born with only three legs, he said.
"It was like the mother had rejected them," Van Wingerden said. "She knew one of them was sick and didn't want to have anything to do with them."
Nearly a year and a half later, Van Wingerden wishes he'd left the litter alone, too.
The 31-year-old flower farmer said he took it upon himself to find the mother and help nurse the crippled kitty and its two siblings, eventually allowing the cats to run around his barn and play with his two children, a son age 8 and a daughter age 5. But when the three-legged cat turned vicious and scratched his daughter last December, Van Wingerden made the feline pay the ultimate price.
He said he took it out back and shot it in the head with a .22-caliber pistol.
Now he's facing up to five years in prison after a Morris County grand jury indicted him earlier this week on animal cruelty charges. He shudders at the thought of having to do jail time after trying to save the crippled cat in the first place.
Read Entire Article At: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MjQmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5OTUwMDImeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkz
9 comments on Act of Kindness by Animal Lover
-
MentalHealthRN
said 1 years ago
hang him by his toes![MAD]
-
mmmhollywould
said 1 years ago
No way. He killed an animal that attacked his child. It is perfectly reasonable. It was his cat, his property. Animals should not have rights.
-
mmmhollywould
said 1 years ago
Sorry , I really like you but I dare disagree :)[HEART]
-
MentalHealthRN
said 1 years ago
well.. we agree to disagree then.[SMILE]
-
MentalHealthRN
said 1 years ago
[HEART][WINK]
-
roosterlady
said 1 years ago
If he would of opted for an animal shelter, he may of found one similiar to one in Rogers, Arkansas. That is where they drown animals in a small creek out back instead of bullets or lethal injections. Guess Mother Humane Society doesn't have enough money to go around and help "her" shelters.[THUMBDOWN]
-
fowlnews
said 1 years ago
The HSUS $100,000,000 plus annual budget evidently isn't large enough to help local shelters. Actually helping animals doesn't seem to come into play when you are trying to rid society of them. But the HSUS doesn't seem to have a problem charging local shelter and profiting from it, do they?
-
MentalHealthRN
said 1 years ago
I think he should have seen this coming...here, shooting a cat in the head is fine, but you can't shoot a dog in the head. Wait, I am wrong. You can get an AX and chop of the head of a cat, but not a dog... that's correct. I asked the vet about it when I found a kitten at the co-op that they said was sickly. I respect you and your post, we're all different with different views....[WINK]
-
fowlnews
said 1 years ago
And we should respect everyones views and rights as long as they do not infringe upon the rights of others. It's unfortunate the "Ethical Vegan" Animal Rightist Horde doesn't.
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
