Mistrial in bird-watcher’s cat-shooting trial
By Gina Spadafori
November 16, 2007
From the Associated Press:
The trial of a prominent birdwatcher accused of animal cruelty for shooting a cat ended in a mistrial Friday after jurors couldn’t reach a verdict.
Jim Stevenson, the founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society, has admitted he shot the cat last fall because he saw it hunting a threatened species of bird near the San Luis Bridge Pass. If convicted, he would have faced up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The trial sparked an Internet debate between cat lovers who decry Stevenson’s actions and birders upset by the toll feral cats take on bird species. It’s also raised questions about what makes an animal a pet, especially if it lives outside.
Jurors deliberated for more than eight hours before the judge declared the mistrial.
“The jury was hopelessly deadlocked, so the government has to decide if they are going to waste more of taxpayers’ money trying this again,” said Stevenson’s attorney, Tad Nelson. “But they can try this a thousand times and they will never get a guilty because he didn’t commit a felony.”
Nelson said his client thought the cat was a stray. A state law bars the killing of domesticated animals without the owner’s permission.
But prosecutors argued that a toll bridge worker took care of the cat and named it “Mama Cat,” effectively becoming the pet’s owner. And they say Stevenson could have easily realized that if he’d looked around the bridge before firing.
The New York Times had a good piece on this case yesterday:
Mr. Stevenson, 54, does not deny using a .22-caliber rifle fitted with a scope to kill the cat, which lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge, linking Galveston to the mainland. He also admits killing many other cats on his own property, where he operates a bed and breakfast for some of the estimated 500,000 birders who come to the island every year.
In her opening statement, Paige L. Santell, a Galveston County assistant district attorney, told the jury of eight women and four men that Mr. Stevenson “shot that animal in cold blood” and that the cat died a slow and painful death “gurgling on its own blood.”
She said that the cat had a name, Mama Cat, and that though the cat lived under a toll bridge, she was fed and cared for by a toll collector, John Newland. He is expected to testify.
Whether the cat was feral is the crucial point in this case. Mr. Stevenson was indicted under a state law that prohibited killing a cat “belonging to another.” Prompted by this case, the law was changed on Sept. 1 to include all cats, regardless of ownership.
