On March 27, a black cat roamed a wide green field at the Sheriff’s shooting range in Kern County. Two deputies, dressed in olive-green tactical gear, spotted the cat, stalked it and shot it. Along with a third deputy who a witness said did not draw his gun, the group watched as the cat writhed in pain and died.
They are now back on the job, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Sunday. “This case is closed,” he told KGET television news. “The allegations have been substantiated. The officers have been disciplined appropriately.”
The sheriff would not say what punitive measures were taken. “That’s all I can tell you without violating the peace officers’ bill of rights,” he said.
The officers were never charged under California Penal Code Section 597, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years for “maliciously and intentionally killing an animal.”
The incident likely would have gone unnoticed if a woman named Susan Bowen hadn't been riding by on her bike and seen it. She said she saw officers stalk and kill the cat, and while she couldn't record the shooting, she confronted officers from a distance, recording video with her phone and yelling, “What are you doing to the cat? Did you just shoot it?”
“He was damaging property,” an officer responded.
“You’re damaging property?” Bowen shouted. “A cat? And now you’re not going to put it out of its misery?”
She posted the video on Facebook.
Bowen could not be reached for comment on the resolution of the matter.
Youngblood also told KGET that he had “met with animal rights groups; they're happy with what we're doing.”
“It’s very interesting,” said Barbara Hays, who runs Cat People. As an organization that has dealt with feral cats at Hart Memorial Park, located northeast of Bakersfield and adjacent to the shooting range, it is the animal rights group closest to the situation. Youngblood has not contacted her about the disposition of the case, she said.
The sheriff seemed to take the shooting seriously, Hays said. “He said, ‘I’m just as horrified as you are.’”
While she said she understood the Sheriff's Department is dealing with larger issues, and that the deputies who used a cat for target practice are not representative of the department as a whole, she remains concerned about the shooters: “If they're treating a little animal with such disrespect, what the hell are they doing to people?”
