Crooked Massachusetts Cops Allow an Elderly Politician to Get Away with Attempting to Drown a Kitten Named Lucky Girl

Lucky Girl with Morgan and Christine Hill

"I looked in the bucket and I saw a little mouth opening and closing, like gasping."
-- Christine Hill

Eighty-three-year-old Laurence E. Thayer, a sewer commissioner in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, is an evil man. On June 1st he wrapped a defenseless kitten in netting and attempted to drown it in a bucket of water.

The kitten was miraculously saved by the timely intervention of forty-two-year-old Christine Hill who just happened to notice what Thayer was doing as she passed by his house. Acting quickly, she pulled it from its watery grave and then pressed on its stomach in order to force out the water.

"I looked in the bucket and I saw a little mouth opening and closing, like gasping" Hill later told the Worcester Telegram on June 23rd. (See "Woman Steps In to Save Cat.") The tiny kitten, who has since been named Lucky Girl, now lives with Christine and her daughter, Morgan.

Despite the fact that drowning a kitten is against the law in Massachusetts, Animal Control Officer Douglas J. Blood refused to prosecute Thayer allegedly because of his age and the fact that the tiny kitten was feral. Had he been convicted of animal cruelty, he could have been sentenced to either five years in jail or fined $2,500. That is far too lenient a punishment for a crime of this magnitude but it would have been better than letting him get away scot-free with his devilry.

Blood was backed up one-hundred per cent in his flagrant dereliction of duty by North Brookfield Police Chief Aram Thomasian Jr. who defended Thayer by ludicrously arguing, "He dealt with the problem the best he could. Back in their day, that's what they did."

By his own admission, Thayer has been killing cats for a long, long time. "I didn't know it was against the law. I've been doing it for a hundred years," he unrepentantly boasted to the Telegram.

The failure of Massachusetts officials to enforce the anti-cruelty laws extends beyond animal control and the police. For instance, when Hill reported Thayer to the Boston office of the Animal Rescue League that phony-baloney organization disgraced itself by agreeing with Blood and Thomasian.

Since Thayer is a sewer commissioner it is likely that both Blood and Thomasian are bound to him by either political or familial connections and that alone accounts for their unwillingness to prosecute him. A perusal of the town's website, www. northbrookfield.net, reveals that it is rife with both nepotism and corruption.

In addition to being chief of police, Thomasian also serves as E911 Coordinator and is a member of the Insurance Advisory Commission and the Local Emergency Planning board. Blood is even greedier. For instance, in addition to being Animal Control Officer, he is also a police sergeant, Emergency Management Director, and Harbormaster as well as serving on the Local Emergency Planning board, the North Brookfield Emergency Management Agency, and the Town Beach Committee. Thayer also has a relative by the name of Larry who serves as a "Fence Viewer."

These corrupt officials are no doubt raking it in with both hands. The median household income in North Brookfield is more than $44,000 a year and since the town has only about forty-six-hundred residents there is plenty of money to go around. Nothing stinks quite like nepotism and corruption in a small town.

Hill is quite understandably perturbed at the city's refusal to go after Thayer. "It really bothered me that no one cared," she told the Telegram. With North Brookfield being so corrupt, there is unfortunately very little that she can do about the situation.

Blood's inexcusable conduct has also drawn fire from Carol A. Gaucher, animal control officer for the town of Spencer eight kilometers away, who criticized him for failing to address not only the feral cat problem in North Brookfield but also a recent outbreak of rabies.

Hill, who operates the Upscale Salon of Spencer, says that Lucky Girl is as "sweet as pie" and it is sincerely hoped that she will go on to have a long and happy life.

Sadly, the same thing cannot be said for the hundreds -- if not indeed thousands -- of cats that Thayer has murdered during his lifetime. Some feline advocacy group from outside of Massachusetts needs to intervene in North Brookfield and demand not only that Thayer be prosecuted but also that Blood and Thomasian be fired for dereliction of duty and corruption.

Photo: Dan Gould of the Worcester Telegram.