Diabolically Mutilated in a Botched Back Alley Sterilization, Billy Is Promised Help by Blackpool Cats in Care Who, Predictably, Turn Right Around and Pull the Rug Out from Underneath Him

 Billy Shortly after His Rescue on September 20th

"We tried absolutely everything and more in our power to save this little fella. We even had a bank appointment this morning for a loan to get him the best (care) we could."
-- Janet Moores of Blackpool Cats in Care

When and where it all began for Billy in all likelihood never will be known for sure. If estimates of his age are credible, however, he entered this world sometime along about the middle of June.

Given his friendly demeanor, it would appear that he was a domesticated kitten as opposed to one that had been born in the wild. Even so that is not always conclusive in that some kittens of his tender age have yet to develop a healthy distrust, no matter how beneficial it may be, of humans.

For present purposes, the black, brown, and white kitten's story began at 8 a.m. on September 20th when a dog walker found him stuffed into a small box in an unidentified park in Preston, Lancashire. He was in shock and covered in blood, urine, and feces.

The Good Samaritan wasted no time in handing him over to an unidentified volunteer from Blackpool Cats in Care (BCC) who in turn delivered him to the charity's main office at 23 The Crescent in St. Annes on Sea, twenty-nine kilometers west of Preston via the M55. He soon thereafter was transferred to the Robert Jones Veterinary Centre at 64 St. Annes Road in Blackpool where an examination quickly confirmed the charity's worst suspicions.

"You can clearly see that the hair on his head has been cut with scissors, and the vet said his testicles had also been cut with scissors," BCC's Janet Moores told the London Metro on September 20th. (See "Tiny Kitten Left to Die after Having 'Testicles Cut Off with Scissors'.") "They have chopped off all of his fur as if they were playing hairdressers and when we looked underneath it's very clear they have cut his testicles off as well."

Press reports have not speculated upon when this botched sterilization took place, but likely it occurred either the night before or very early on the morning of September 20th. Toxicology tests, had they been performed, would have determined if he had been given any analgesics beforehand but that is hardly ever the case with back alley castrations of this sort.

Given that Billy also was dehydrated and emaciated he likely had been taken away from his mother much too soon and thereafter severely neglected by his owner, if he did indeed have one. The only other explanation that readily comes to mind is that he was mutilated sometime earlier and therefore had been languishing in that wretched park for days.

Upon his arrival at Jones, he was provided with the standard battery of supportive care that all cats in extremis receive. He first of all was likely placed on a heating pad and perhaps wrapped in blankets in an effort to rapidly elevate his body temperature.

A catheter then was inserted into one of his legs so as to facilitate the administration of intravenous fluids. A regimen of antibiotics and painkillers as well as a perfunctory blood test followed soon thereafter. No details have been disclosed as to what was done in order to attend to the back of Billy's head, which in photographs looks more like it had been attacked with a razor than a pair of scissors, but more than likely the injured area was inspected for cuts to the scalp and, if any were found, they were disinfected and treated with topical antibiotics. In regard to his horribly mutilated scrotum, the vets first had to stanch the flow of blood, clean and disinfect the area, and then to apply antibiotics and a bandage of some sort.

There can be little doubt that it was gruesome and heart-rending work. "In an ideal world he'd probably have an operation to remove the infected parts, but he is just too weak to pull through," Moores added resignedly to the London Metro.

While all of that was certainly distressing enough in its own right, it nevertheless was encouraging that the charity initially gave him a fifty-fifty chance of surviving. There was even talk of finding him a home.

"He's going to need an operation to fix his back end because his testicles are cut through," Moores amplified to the London Metro. "Fingers crossed he is going to pull through and we can get the poor little mite home because we'd love to find him a lovely family where he's never going to suffer like this again."

In an undated article that appears on BCC's web site, the charity actually sounded downright optimistic about Billy's prospects. "He was urinating, eating, drinking, and purring a couple of days later," it proudly announced. (See "Billy the Cat That We All Took to Our Hearts.")

By October 2nd, however, the dark clouds had gathered and the charity was singing an entirely different tune. "Billy is still poorly in the vets, although he did start to pass urine by himself he has relapsed and is now back to being unable to pass urine without being expressed (manual manipulation of the bladder from the outside)," Moores announced on BCC's Facebook page. "We still at this point do not know what his future holds."

Billy Was Able to Stand but It Is Unclear if He Could Walk

That was small potatoes compared to the next bombshell that she dropped. "He does need a big operation on his pelvis as he cannot use one of his legs but at the moment we need to concentrate on his bladder functioning," Moores added.

First of all, it is hard to believe that it took both the charity and the vets at Robert Jones twelve days in order to realize that there was something sorely amiss with Billy's pelvis. That is even more so the case in that radiographs, if not indeed MRIs and CT scans, most assuredly were taken of his rear end and scrotum upon arrival.

Although BCC's rather tardy announcement that Billy was experiencing difficulties with his pelvis, bladder, and one of his legs was discouraging, little clue did the outside world have of just how bad things had gotten for him. Three days later on October 5th Moores removed the scales from the eyes of those that it had been treating to a cruel game of ring-a-round the rosies.

"Yesterday Billy was taken to an orthopedic vet in Liverpool. This specialist had a look at his x-rays (sic) and unfortunately his pelvis is so badly damaged for them (sic) to be able to do anything for him," is how that she delivered the coup d'grâce to Billy's supporters on Facebook. "His pelvis is completely shattered which has damaged the nerves which controls (sic) his bladder and leg."

For the sake of completeness, on its web site the charity spoke only of a "broken pelvis." So to sum up, over the course of a fifteen-day period BCC went from making no mention whatsoever of Billy's pelvis to later admitting that he needed a "big operation" on it on the one hand to declaring that it was "broken" and "completely shattered" on the other hand.

From that moment onward, Billy's allotted time upon this earth had dwindled down to hours. "He is not in any pain," Moores acknowledged in her October 5th posting on Facebook. "(Nevertheless) the specialist has advised us to put him to sleep."

She did, however, hold out one glimmer of hope. "As a last resort we have now contacted Noel Fitzpatrick, the super-vet off the TV in London," she disclosed. "All his (Billy's) history has been faxed over and we are now awaiting a call."

As founder of Fitzpatrick Referrals in the Eashing section of Godalming in Surrey, the neuro-orthopedic veterinarian first skyrocketed to international acclaim in 2009 when he created an artificial knee for an eight-year-old brown and gray cat named Missy from Petworth in West Sussex. Later in 2010, he created a new hip, metal implants, and a pair of prosthetic feet for a thirty-month-old black tom named Oscar from the parish of Grouville on the Bailiwick of Jersey.

In Oscar's case, he had lost both of his rear paws when he was run down in the autumn of 2009 by a kamikaze combine operator harvesting maize. (See Cat Defender post of November 20, 2010 entitled "Celebrated as the World's First Bionic Cat, Oscar Has Been Turned into a Guinea Pig with a Very Uncertain Future" and Kate Allen, Oscar's owner, The Bionic Cat, published by Summersdale Publishers of Chichester in West Sussex back in 2013. An excerpt from the latter can be found in the Daily Mail, February 16, 2013, "The £50,000 Bionic Cat: The Pet Who Lost Two Paws in a Freak Accident and the Efforts to Get Him Back on His Own Two Feet.")

"If Noel cannot do anything for Billy then we will have absolutely no other option but to let him go," Moores concluded in her October 5th posting on Facebook.

Whether or not Fitzpatrick was willing to have helped Billy is a question that Moores never has answered. In fact, her October 5th mention of him was her first and last word on that subject.

Even if he had been willing to have done whatever he could for Billy, BCC never in a million years would have met his asking price, which surely would have been in the tens of thousands of pounds even if his surgery had been willing to graciously absorb the bulk of the cost as it had done with Oscar. More than likely she and BCC by that time had made up their warped minds to whack Billy and the appeal to Fitzpatrick was strictly a publicity stunt.

It is unclear exactly when BCC perpetrated its evil and despicable deed but, for whatever it is worth, it claims to have murdered him early on October 8th. "We are absolutely heartbroken to be saying this, but little Billy lost his fight this morning," Moores announced on Facebook that same day.

The problem with that is that her announcement was posted at 4:44 Greenwich Mean Time and that implies that she and Billy's executioner stayed up all night just to kill him and afterwards she immediately went online to inform the world. Such a scenario seems highly improbable to say the least.

More than likely Billy was killed on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and it took Moores until the small hours of Monday before she was able to summon the moxie in order to confess her despicable crime to the world. For the sake of the truth, Billy most assuredly did not loose his fight to live as she claims; au contraire, his life was violently taken from him by Moores and BCC.

The Fur Was Removed from the Back of Billy's Head

In an utterly absurd and totally dishonest attempt to justify her crime, Moores claims that Billy's condition had deteriorated over the weekend. "This weekend little Billy started with bowel complications and was showing signs that he wasn't happy, uncomfortable -- maybe in pain and stressed...," she wrote October 8th on Facebook.

First of all, excretory difficulties are to be expected from almost any kitten in Billy's condition. A more likely explanation is that Moores and her fellow staffers quickly tired of cleaning up his poop and changing his bedding.

Nobody should ever underestimate the adverse consequences that a little bit of feline excrement can have upon the thinking and behavior of even the species' stanchest supports. For example in November of 2014, Bob Watterson of Portland, Maine, got rid of a six-month-old kitten named Spice almost as soon as he had adopted her all because she had the temerity to piss in his bed. (See Cat Defender post of December 11, 2014 entitled "Uprooted from Home and Left Stranded Thousands of Miles Away, Spice Discovers to Her Horror That Not All the Ghouls and Goblins in This World Are Necessarily to Be Found on Halloween.")

Secondly, to snuff out the life of a kitten because it supposedly "wasn't happy, uncomfortable -- maybe in pain and stressed" is simply ludicrous. Killing a kitten should require both stronger proof and a far better rationale than Moores has provided.

"We did say, and I know you all said the same...we didn't want any pain, suffering or distress as he had already been through so much," Moores persisted in her October 8th posting on Facebook.

If that indeed was the reasoning behind her and BCC's crime, they should have killed off Billy upon his arrival on September 20th because that was when he most definitely, not allegedly, was experiencing his greatest discomfort. Furthermore, Moores and BCC knew from the very beginning that his treatment and convalescence were destined to be long, tedious and, at times, unpleasant for him.

"I'm sorry we couldn't do more," Moores signed off. "Sleep tight, Billy, you were too precious for this world."

All of that would have been outrageous enough in its own right but Moores did not have the bon sens to have stopped there but instead she went on to indulge in a mother lode of mumbo-jumbo about gods and angels. She even had the audacity to post on Facebook a photograph of him crossing the fictional Rainbow Bridge.

It was however her posting of an anonymous bit of poesy entitled "Made It Home" that proved to be totally insufferable. Take, for instance, the following lines:

"Here there is no sadness, and no sorrow, and no pain. Here there is no crying, and I'll never hurt again.

Here it is so peaceful, when all the angels sing. I really have to go for now...I've just got to try my wings."

Besides being enough to have choked even the stoutest hippopotamus, that is precisely the same type of sottise that has been pressed into service by Moores and her misbegotten ilk ever since time immemorial in order to attempt to justify the heinous crimes that they perpetrate on a daily basis against cats and other animals. Furthermore, she and her confederates are truly fortunate that the gods, angels, and heaven do not in fact exist and that there is not so much as an iota of justice in this world because if there were they would surely be in a heap of trouble.

That likewise is an equally fortuitous state of affairs for the latter, especially considering all the evil that has been done in their names. "Je ne sais pas si Dieu existe, mais ce serait mieux pour sa réputation s'il n'existeit pas," nineteenth century writer Jules Renard once astutely observed.

Although Billy may very well now be free of all sadness, sorrow, pain, crying, and hurting as she alleges, he also is free of their opposites as well. That in turn can only mean that he has ceased to exist and is not coming back. A day of living that is completely free of pain and suffering is an impossibility for both cats and men.

Considering that a cat's tenure upon this earth is already so terribly short, to have taken so much as a second off of the approximately fifteen weeks that Billy was allotted is a crime of monumental proportions. That is even more so the case considering that the anti-suffering argument is one of the biggest lies ever concocted.

What proponents of such sophistry are really saying is that they are too cheap to foot the bill for a cat's care and far too lazy to nurse it back to health. No one is forthright enough to point it out but there most definitely exists an unmistakable correlation between an alleged precipitate decline in the health of a ca and a corresponding increase in the cost and effort required in order to treat it. C'est-à-dire, just about all cats are killed off for economic, as opposed to health, reasons and that ironclad rule of so-called humane care definitely held true in Billy's case.

If anyone ever could be persuaded to closely examine the lives of colossal phonies like Moores they invariably would quickly discover that they are some of the world's meanest exploiters of cats. They shoot the world a convincing line about their tremendous love for members of the species but once the chips are down they get rid of them just as if they were nothing more than worn-out pairs of shoes.

Billy's Mutilated Scrotum

In fact, shelters and rescue groups have so little respect for the sanctity of feline life that they will gladly kill almost any cat if it is convenient for them to do so and that indictment most definitely includes so-called no-kill operations as well. (See Cat Defender posts of October 23, 2012, January 2, 2013, February 9, 2013, August 26, 2015, and February 17, 2016 entitled, respectively, "A Supposedly No-Kill Operation in Marblehead Betrays Sally and Snuff Out Her Life Instead of Providing Her with a Home and Veterinary Care," "Alley Cat Allies Demonstrates Its Utter Contempt for the Sanctity of Life by Unconscionably Killing Off Its Office Cat, Jared," "New Start Cat Rescue Center Abruptly Kills Off Victoria after the Cancer Returns to Her Already Ravaged Ears," "A Myriad of Cruel and Unforgivable Abandonments, a Chinese Puzzle, and Finally the Handing Down and Carrying Out of a Death Sentence Spell the End for Long-Suffering and Peripatetic Tigger," and "Cats Protection Races to Alfie's Side after His Owner Dies and He Winds Up on the Street, Swears It Is Going to Help Him, and Then Turns Around and Has Him Whacked.")

Newspapers, libraries, ports, airports, railroads, retail outlets, and scores of other institutions and businesses keep cats as mascots and mousers but they seldom, if ever, forge any lasting moral bonds with them. (See Cat Defender posts of February 9, 2006, September 28, 2011, December 7, 2006, March 8, 2016, May 31, 2007, May 28, 2015, October 31, 2015, and January 15, 2015 entitled, respectively, "A Newspaper Cat Named Tripod Is Killed Off by the Journalists That He Befriended in Vermont," "Marvin Is Betrayed, Abducted, and Murdered by a Journalist and a Shelter Who Preposterously Maintain That They Were Doing Him a Favor," "After Nineteen Years of Service and Companionship, the Ingrates at an Iowa Library Murder Dewey Readmore Books," "Penny of the Swansea Public Library: A Remembrance," "Port Taranaki Kills Off Its World Famous Seafaring Feline, Colin's, at Age Seventeen," "Abandoned, Homeless on the Street, Expelled by the Ingrates at Manchester International Airport, and Finally Whacked by Her Last Guardian, So Ran the Course of Ollie's Sad and Turbulent Life," "Tama Is Finally Able to Escape the Merciless Clutches of Her Simon Legree Overlords at the Wakayama Railway but Doing So Has Cost Her Everything That She Ever Had, Including Her Life," and "Lewis, Ann Arbor's Much Celebrated Garden Shop Cat, Departs This World Under Highly Suspicious Circumstances.")

Owners who hire unscrupulous veterinarians to kill off their cats for them are every bit as uncaring and morally bankrupt as shelters, rescue groups, and businesses. (See Cat Defender posts of October 27, 2008, March 12, 2009, July 17, 2013, August 27, 2014, and October 18, 2014 entitled, respectively, "Loved and Admired All Over the World, Feline Heroine Scarlett Is Killed Off by Her Owner after She Becomes Ill," "Too Cheap and Lazy to Care for Him During His Final Days, Betty Currie Has Socks Killed Off and His Corpse Burned," "Not Satisfied with Merely Whacking Meiko, Garrison Keillor Struts on Stage in Order to Shed a Bucketful of Crocodile Tears and to Denigrate the Entire Species," "After Traveling for So Many Miles on the Bridport to Charmouth Bus, Dodger's Last Ride Is, Ironically, to the Vet Who Unconscionably Snuffs Out His Precious Life at the Urging of His Derelict Owner," and "Hamish McHamish's Derelict Owner Reenters His Life after Fourteen Years of Abject Neglect only to Have Him Killed Off after He Contracts a Preeminently Treatable Common Cold.")

As was it the case with Billy, the common thread that runs throughout each and every one of the above crimes is characterized by declarations of undying love, pledges of care and steadfastness followed closely at heel by outrageous betrayals, the commission of the dastardly deed itself, and then the recitation of a simply outrageous pack of self-serving lies designed to justify it. Almost always overlooked amidst the self-congratulatory postering that follows afterwards is the petit fait that there is absolutely nothing that is either painless or humane about these unnecessary killings. (See Cat Defender post of April 8, 2018 entitled "A Rare Behind the Scenes Glimpse at the Ruthless Murders of Two Cats by an Indiana Veterinarian Exposes All Those Who Claim That Lethal Injections Are Humane to Be Barefaced Liars.")

Although Moores did not miss in beat when it came to trotting out all the usual arguments, dodges, and subterfuges, in the end she ultimately was done in by her own verbosity. "We tried absolutely everything and more in our power to save this little fella," she bellowed October 8th on Facebook. "We even had a bank appointment this morning for a loan to get him the best (care) we could."

She quite obviously did not keep that appointment unless the banks in St. Annes stay open all night and, even more unlikely, have loan officers on duty during the small hours. Besides, the idea of borrowing money to pay for a cat's care sounds much more like a suggestion that would have come from a veterinarian as opposed to a rescue group. Moreover, given that BCC relies upon a web site that was designed by WIX of Tel Aviv, and most likely gratis at that, it is a bit difficult to believe that it would ever borrow money in order to save the life of any cat.

"We contacted specialist surgeons from north to south over the weekend and they all came back with the same reply," she continued. "There was nothing that could be done, his pelvis was badly damaged."

First of all, considering that regular, run-of-the-mill veterinarians are not all that accessible even during regular business hours, it would be interesting to know exactly how many specialists that she was able to have gotten a hold of, either in person or on the blower, on a weekend. Secondly, why did killing Billy suddenly become such an urgent matter?

In an October 4th photograph that she posted of him on Facebook, Billy's eyes are bright and he clearly can be seen resting comfortably on either a blanket or a pad. Moreover, he certainly does not give any indication of being in pain and if the viewer did not know differently he would surely pronounce him to be the very epitome of a healthy kitten.

In addition to the brightness of the eyes, there are several other considerations that need to be evaluated before snuffing out the life of a cat. For instance, is it still conscious and does it still possess the will to live?

Secondly, is it still eating and drinking? Thirdly, is it's excretory system still functioning? Fourthly, has it sustained any irreparable damage to its vital organs?

What a veterinarian has to say concerning life and death matters is not gospel. In making such momentous decisions, owners should rely upon their own intuition and morals. Regrettably, Billy did not have anyone in his corner in order to speak up for his inalienable right to live and to foot the enormous bill for his care.

Although treating Billy would have been unquestionably expensive and labor intensive, BCC had not been left hung out to dry. "We have had thousands of messages from people all over the world. We must have had three-hundred to four-hundred offers for homes for him," Moores acknowledged to the Blackpool Gazette on October 11th. (See "Castrated Kitten Loses Fight for Life.") "I have never known the whole of England to stand up for a little kitten. Everybody has taken him into their hearts."

The charity has not publicly disclosed how much in donations that it received earmarked for Billy's care but it is suspected that the amount was not insubstantial. Plus, additional funding would have flowed in if only it has chosen to have spared Billy's life. It is even remotely conceivable that some surgeries might have given the charity a huge discount.

Billy Looked Well Enough on October 4th 

Then there is the fact that St. Annes is one of the most affluent cities in all of northern England and that strongly suggests that BCC either has substantial resources of its own or, at the very least, has access to them. Rescue groups, however, are seldom willing to invest very much money in a single animal.

They feel that doing so is unfair to the thousands of other cats that desperately need their assistance and that argument is not without its merit. What they do instead is exploit kittens like Billy to the hilt as fundraising tools only to turn around and whack them and that is patently dishonest as well as immoral.

Given the incompleteness and glaring contradictions contained in BCC's assessment of Billy's health, it is difficult to speculate with any degree of certainty as to what could have been done for him. His principal ailment was, quite obviously, his broken pelvis and, owing to his tender age, repairing it would have been difficult due to the smallness and brittle nature of the ischium, pubis, and ilium of which it is comprised.

It is not even known how that it was broken. His attacker could have used either a blunt object on it or broken it with a swift kick. Another possibility is that he broke it when he stepped on Billy in an effort to hold him down while he cut off his testicles.

Considering the large number of cats that are deliberately run down by motorists every day, it is not surprising that broken pelvises constitute the second most common type of skeletal injuries sustained by members of the species. In turn, it only stands to reason that they would be preeminently treatable in some fashion.

In the vast majority of such cases, treatment consists primarily of a liberal application of painkillers and up to as much as six months of rest. According to veterinarian David Diamond, fractures of the ischium and the pubis usually fall into that category.

By contrast, bone plates, metal screws, and pins are used to mend a broken ilium. (See Pet Place, July 4, 2014, "Fracture of the Pelvis in Cats.")

For example, an eight-month-old brown and white female named Bristol from Florida was brought into one of Best Friends Animal Society's clinics a few years back suffering from a broken pelvis and incontinence. Her original rescuers wanted to kill her but the charity, headquartered in Kanab, Utah, not only spared her life but also was able to mend her broken pelvis through rest and time. (See Best Friends, February 2, 2016, "Young Cat with Pelvic Fracture Recovers.")

At the other end of the spectrum, a nine-year-old calico named Sophie who had suffered multiple fractures of her pelvis and nerve damage when she was run down by a motorist required a considerably greater amount of veterinary intervention. In her case, Bray, Ireland, veterinarian Pete Wedderburn was forced to employ physical therapy, ultrasound, lasers, and electrical muscle stimulation administered via electrodes in order to get her back on her feet. (See Pete the Vet.com, November 13, 2013, "Sophie, a Nine-Year-Old Cat Who Suffered a Broken Pelvis after Being Hit by a Car.")

The prognosis for Billy, if he had been allowed to go on living, is a good deal more problematic. In all likelihood the small bones in his pelvis would have continued to grow but it is far from clear if they would have fused together in a workable fashion. It likewise is unsure if surgical intervention would have materially aided that delicate process.

In a photograph released to the public by BCC, he was at least able to stand on his own and that was a positive sign. Even if he never fully regained the services of his pelvis and rear legs, it might have been possible to have fitted him with some type of prosthetic device that would have allowed him to regain his mobility.

For instance, a four-year-old tuxedo named Blacky from Seadown on New Zealand's south island lost not only his left eye but the use of both of his rear legs when he was run down and left for dead by a hit-and-run motorist in June of 2010. Brushing aside calls to have him killed, owner Louise Broomhall elected to spend NZ$2,000 in order to have his irreparably damaged eye removed and another NZ$600 on a two-wheeled prosthetic device that now allows him to move around on his own.

"Certainly he means a lot to our family and this is why we love him to bits and will do anything for him and this just proves it," she told The Timaru Herald on August 19, 2010. (See "Blacky (the cat) Gets His Wheels.") "He appreciates everything you do for him."

Even more amazing, a tortoiseshell named Callie Mae, who resides at the Theodore Veterinary Hospital in the Alabamian town of the same name, does not have any appendages at all. In 2008, she was chased up a tree by dogs where she subsequently became entangled in electrical wires and plunged to the ground breaking all of her legs.

Billy and the Fanciful Rainbow Bridge

Someone has to scratch, brush, and groom her and she uses Wee-Wee Pads but other than that she, at last word, was doing fine. "She's a good kitty," Sandy Tomlin of the surgery told WRKG-TV of Mobile in a video on August 9, 2010. (See "Legless Cat Ready to Start Another Life.") "She even caught a mouse one time."

It thus might not be totally unreasonable to suggest that, given care and treatment, the problems with Billy's pelvis could have been gotten around one way or the other. As far as his excretory problems are concerned, his bladder could have been manually expressed three to four times a day and laxatives and stool softeners could have been prescribed in order to have eased his passing of fecal matter. Chiropractic medicine and acupuncture could have solved, or at least greatly alleviated, the nerve damage that he had sustained and, possibly, restored service to his injured leg.

Billy therefore did not have to die. If it had possessed so much as half a mind to have done so, BCC could have at the very least provided him with an unlimited amount of time and rest in order to have seen if his pelvis would have healed on its own. Doing so would not have broken the bank and expressing his bladder and cleaning up a little poop would have not killed either Moores or anyone else for that matter. Best of all, such a course of treatment just might have succeeded


His life was preeminently worth saving not only because of its own intrinsic worth but also owing to the fact that he richly deserved to live. Keeping him alive also would have served as a slap in the face of the individual who perpetrated this monstrous crime.

Inexcusably, Billy lost all the way around. No one was willing to save his life and to date nobody has been willing to lift so much as a lousy finger in order to bring his attacker to justice.

Press reports have not broached the subject and it is far from clear if Billy was merely the victim of a botched sterilization or rather a sadistic attempt to torture and maim him for life. Examining veterinarians would likely know the answer to that but they have not publicly voiced an opinion one way or the other.

If the former were the case, it is conceivable that the patch of missing fur on his head could have been removed, not by a pair of scissors, but rather duct tape. Taping a cat to either a board or a table in order to hold it still is a common technique employed by those individuals who perform these types of utterly barbaric procedures. (See Cat Defender posts of February 26, 2008 and February 14, 2006 entitled, respectively, "The Dark Side of Spay and Neuter: Veterinarian Botched Surgeries and Back Alley Castrations Claim the Lives of Numerous Cats" and "Special Agent Fred the Cat Goes Undercover in Order to Help Nab a Quack Vet in A Brooklyn Sting Operation," the Essex Chronicle, February 15, 2014, "'A Sick Stranger Tried to Castrate My Cat' Says Owner of Sonia of Southminster," and the Bay of Plenty Times of Tauranga, January 27, 2011, "Owner Horrified at Castration of Prized Pedigree.")

As per usual, whenever a cat is attacked all that ensues is a proverbial feast of highfalutin rhetoric, sporadic outbursts of self-righteous moral indignation, and a legion of utterly laughable excuses for doing absolutely nothing. "It's barbaric," Moores exclaimed to the London Metro on September 20th. "Whoever has done this are (sic) sick, sick people."

Nonsense! The individual who mutilated Billy is evil, not sick, and what he richly deserves is no less than a fatal dose of his own medicine.

"I really hope that karma is just around the corner to the person who did this to Billy," she added October 8th on Facebook. "You really are one sick individual."

Hope and karma do not solve animal cruelty cases. Money, hard work, dedication, and forensic science are needed but seemingly nobody or any agency on the planet has so much as a smidgen of those ingredients to spare.

"Whoever has done this has to be brought to justice because what are they going to do next?" Moores declared to the Blackpool Gazette in the October 11th article cited supra. "What they have done to a kitten is just barbaric."

Yet, there is absolutely nothing in the public record that would tend to suggest that she has done a solitary thing in order to bring about such a result. Also, as far as it is known, BCC has neither opened an investigation into this matter or so much as offered a monetary reward, no matter how minuscule, for information that possibly might lead to an arrest.

In that respect, it is far from being a lone wolf. "We are continuing to investigate this case as inquiries are ongoing," an unidentified spokesman for the RSPCA told the Blackpool Gazette in the same article. "We are unable to comment further at this stage."

It likewise is a sure bet that the thoroughly discredited RSPCA will not be have anything to say at any other "stage" or, for that matter, before Hell turns into an ice skating rink. The reason for its intransigence is really quite simple: it is far too busy killing cats to ever worry about others who do likewise. (See Cat Defender posts of June 5, 2007, October 23, 2010, and August 31, 2015 entitled, respectively, "The RSPCA's Unlawful Seizure and Senseless Killing of Mork Leaves His Sister, Mindy, Brokenhearted and His Caretakers Devastated," "The RSPCA Steals and Executes Nightshift Who Was His Elderly Caretaker's Last Surviving Link to Her Dead Husband," and "Beaten and Entombed Above Ground for Several Weeks, a Forever Nameless Cat from Colchester Is Finished Off by the RSPCA which Refuses to Even Investigate Her Death," and Daily Mail articles dated December 30, 2012, November 6, 2014, August 11, 2016, and August 14, 2016 and entitled, respectively, "Revealed: RSPCA Destroys Half of the Animals That It Rescues -- Yet Thousands Are Completely Healthy," "RSPCA Forced to Apologize for Wrongly Putting Down Cat Belonging to Family It Accused of Cruelty in Bungled Prosecution," "Distraught Saltney Family Blast RSPCA after Their Cat Was Put Down," and "RSPCA Is at It Again! Cat Saved Then Put to Sleep.")

An Example of BCC's Sophistry

The despicable crimes committed by the RSPCA are reason enough in themselves for enacting an across the board ban on the killing of all cats under any conceivable circumstances. Even in those cases where a cat is allegedly suffering great pain and there is little or no hope for its recovery, no fewer than three separate court orders signed by three different judges should be required in order for any rescue group, governmental entity, veterinarian, or owner to extinguish its life.

As BCC's cold-blooded murder of Billy has demonstrated, the killing of cats based solely upon a lack of money and an unwillingness to treat them is a racket that must be stopped. Furthermore, those that require top-notch veterinary care in order to go on living should be provided it by the state if their owners, rescue groups, and others are unwilling to do what is only right by them.

Not surprisingly, the Lancashire Constabulary, located a scant five kilometers southwest of Preston, has done absolutely nothing in order to bring Billy's attacker to justice. In fact, the attack has not merited so much as even a mention in the long list of crimes that are cataloged in the news section of its web site.

That is in spite of an online petition at Lady Freethinker having collected in excess of twenty-three-thousand-five-hundred signatures imploring it to act. With three-thousand officers and five-hundred auxiliary personnel at its disposal, it still cannot spare even one of them to even half-heartedly look into this matter.

The intransigence of the authorities to take cruelty to cats seriously has in turn made Lancashire one of the most dangerous locales in the world for members of the species. For example in July of 2014, twenty-four-year-old Stephanie Curwen of 24 Walter Avenue in BCC's backyard of St. Annes sicced her Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Duke, on a six-month-old black kitten named Regi that was owned by Lesley-Anne Brocklehurst of Blackpool. She than sat back and laughed like a demon as Duke tore Regi apart.

When the case finally was heard in Blackpool Magistrates' Court on April 30, 2015, Curwen was let off with £280 in fines. Although the RSPCA did prosecute the case, it was not responsible for identifying and arresting Curwen.

"She's probably remorseful for the fact that she chose to walk down a road with cameras all over it. Had we not had the cameras she would have got away with it," Brocklehurst commented after sentencing. "I'm glad that we had the cameras and I'm hoping it will make people think twice about what they are doing." (See Cat Defender post of July 18, 2015 entitled "Blackpudlian Thrill Seeker Who Sicced Her Pit Bull on Regi and Then Laughed Off Her Fat Ass as He Tore Him Apart Receives a Customary Clean Bill of Health from the Courts.")

Lancastrians additionally get a big kick out of using dogs in order to hunt cats. (See the Lancashire Telegraph of Blackburn, articles dated September 8, 2010 and July 12, 2014 and entitled, respectively, "Cats Savaged in Burnley" and "East Lancashire Gang Who Filmed Dogs Attacking Badger and Cat Jailed.")

As if all of that were not bad enough, they steal domestic cats for the purpose of feeding them to fighting dogs. (See the Bury Times of Bolton in Greater Manchester, January 1, 2011, "Cats Destined to Be Used as 'Live Bait' for Greyhounds.") F

They additionally kill them in droves by burning down shelters. For example on March 23, 2011, eighteen-year-old Jordan Morgan of Bloomfield Road in South Shore and twenty-three-year-old Karl Heaton of Smithy Lane in St. Annes deliberately set fire to the Easterleigh Animal Shelter on Queensway in St. Annes which resulted in the deaths of nine cats, sixteen chickens, and one rabbit. (See the Blackpool Gazette, April 17, 2012, "Court Told of Sick Animal Sanctuary Arson.")

Yet, for killing those twenty-six defenseless animals, they received only three-year jail sentences. (See the Blackpool Gazette, November 5, 2012, "Fury as Arsonists' Sentence Is (sic) Slashed.")

The only known group of miscreants who are on a par with Lancastrians when it comes to abusing cats are their cousins across the Irish Sea and that admonition applies equally to the inhabitants of both ends of the Emerald Isle. (See Cat Defender posts of September 18, 2008, November 20, 2008, January 5, 2010, and March 24, 2010 entitled, respectively, "Drunken Brute Beats, Stabs, and Then Hurls Fifi to Her Death Against the Side of a House in Limerick," "Trusting Domestic Cat Has Her Left Ear Blown Off with a Firecracker by Cretins Outside an Irish Bar," "Tourists and Consumers Alike Should Boycott Ireland and Its Exports in Response to Its Extermination of the Homeless Cats on Tory Island," and "Seven-Month-Old Bailey is Fed to Lurchers by a Group of Sadistic Teens in Search of Cheap Thrills in Northern Ireland.")

It thus seems perfectly clear that Lancastrians are not about to do anything in order to bring either Billy's mutilator to justice or to better protect the lives of all cats living in the county. That is in spite of having more than ample reason to at least think about doing the former.

That is because Billy has left behind a mother, father, and siblings and their lives are hanging in the balance while the authorities continue to twiddle their thumbs. Their failure in the past, present, and future to act in turn makes them complicit in Billy's death as well as in that of all other cats who have fallen, and are destined to fall, victims to violence.

"We are having a memorial plaque made for Billy which will be up in our stop permanently as a tribute to him," Moores announced October 10th on Facebook. "Billy must never be forgotten."

It is odd, however, that she is yet to make any mention whatsoever as to what was done with his remains and that in turn lends itself to speculation that she either had them incinerated or tossed out with the trash. If she had been even the tiniest bit sincere when she uttered those sentiments she would have provided him with a funeral service followed by a proper burial on the grounds of BCC. A tombstone, flowers, and a perpetually well-tended grave would have been essential along with seeing to it that his mutilator was brought to justice.

Reality can be a stubborn bugger in that it is not quite so easily gotten rid of even with a blizzard of lies and bullshit and therein lies, arguably, the most disturbing aspect of poor Billy's sad and short life: he already has become yesterday's news.

Photos: Blackpool Cats in Care.

No Respect for the Dead! A Tierfriedhof Operator Who Desecrated Minki's Grave to the Point That Her Remains Now Lie Partially in an Adjoining Plot Is Given the Stamp of Approval by a German Court

Minki's Hotly Contested Grab

"Manche nennen das einen irren Prozess. Aber so irre ist gar nicht. Er (der Kläger) ist kein Spinner."
-- Torsten F. Barthel

Mike S. loved Minki something awful and when she passed away in May of last year he wanted to provide her with a final resting place that would do justice to just how much that she had meant to him. Totally unwilling to completely let go of the twelve-year-old shorthair, he also coveted a spot that he could regularly visit and spend some time with her as well as to get lost, at least for a little while, in his memories of her.

His quest ultimately led him to Tierfriedhof Mönchengladbach at am Schomm 13 in the city of the same name, thirty-four kilometers west of Düsseldorf in Nordrhein Westfalen, where proprietress Monika Ludwig obligingly leased him a fifty by forty centimeter plot for three years at a cost of €210. The digging of the grave cost Mike S. (last name not given in press reports) another €50.

He additionally provided Minki with a tombstone and a portrait of her rests up against it. Etched on the stone is the following epithet: "Du warst! Du bist! Du bleibst!" ("You were! You are! You remain!")

On top of that he decorated her Grab with flowers, lanterns, and candles. That hallowed ground also contains a wooden bench where he would come and sit with her almost every day but it is unclear if it was supplied by him or the Tierfriedhof.

All apparently went swimmingly until sometime earlier in the year when Ludwig took it upon herself to dramatically reduce the size of Minki's grave by moving in the boundary stones that surround it. As far as it is known, she undertook that utterly appalling act of grave desecration without even so much as bothering to notify Mike S. beforehand; rather, she simply presented him with a fait accompli.

The consequences that precipitate act had upon Minki's remains were nothing short of disastrous. "Dadurch liegt die Katze jetzt nur noch zur Hälfte in ihrem Grab und zur anderen Hälfte mit ihren Extremitäten außerhalb," Torsten F. Barthel, Mike S.'s attorney, told the Rheinische Post of Düsseldorf on September 14th. (See "Minki findet wohl noch keine letzte Ruhe.") "Das hält mein Mandant für unwürdig."

Specifically, it is now believed that the boundary stones lie directly above Minki's heart with her legs actually on the other side of them. None of that is known with any degree of certainty, however, and it is conceivable that her remains now could lie entirely on the other side of the stones.

While Ludwig was in the process of divesting Minki of her grave, she also is alleged to have ripped out of the ground a flowering plant, and possibly some other mementos that went with it, that Mike S. had added as Erinnerungsstücke. Although it is not easy to place a monetary value on such an item, he has provisionally assessed it to be worth around €20.

Mike S. and Ludwig attempted to settle their differences out of court but to no avail. She even offered to transfer Minki's remains to a larger plot, presumably for both a fee as well as an increase in rent, but he rejected that compromise.

Following several postponements, both parties finally found themselves before Richterin Miriam Pels in Amtsgericht Mönchengladbach-Rheydt at Brucknerallee 115 on September 14th. Having gotten wind of what was afoot, the litigants and Pels were confronted upon arrival by two television camera crews, six photographers, and just under a dozen journalists. C'est-á-dire, the German press had come well prepared for a field day and they did not go away disappointed.

By instigating this civil action, Mike S. was seeking to have Minki's grave enlarged by forty centimeters as well as to be monetarily compensated for the loss of his Erinnerungsstücke. Like the boundary stones that now purportedly lie above Minki, Ludwig was not about to be moved even though she professes to own three dogs as well as "eine Menge" of cats.

She therefore began her defense by informing the court that since she had acquired the cemetery in 2012 she had buried more than one-hundred cats, dogs, rabbits, and chinchillas without incurring any difficulties whatsoever up until now. "Ich möchte fast sagen, alle meine Kunden sind zufrieden," the Rheinische Post reported her as avowing. "Alles, wo das Herz dran hängt."

On her web site she states her case even more emphatically. "Mir ist es wichtig, dass hier eine gut Bestattungskultur gepflegt wird," she boasts. "Die Trauernden sollen in Ruhe von ihren Lieblingen Abschied nehmen können."

From there she went on to categorically deny that she had stolen Mike S.'s Erinnerungsstücke. Most importantly of all, she not only claimed that Mike S. had received all the space that he had paid for but that he actually had unlawfully encroached upon a neighboring plot by taking it upon himself to enlarge Minki's grave.

Although both parties earnestly believe themselves to be in the right, it is possible that this entire dispute has its genesis in a misunderstanding that was either unintentional or intentional on Ludwig's part. That is because in order to place Minki's body in her grave it was necessary for Ludwig to excavate a considerably larger area than that of the actual grave itself.

In particular, since she insisted upon burying the cat herself the grave had to be large enough in order for her to get in and out of it. "Wie soll ich sonst da reinsteigen," she pointed out to the Süddeutsche Zeitung of München on September 14th. (See "Mit dem Pfötchen unter dem Randstein.")

Whereas the depth of Minki's grave has not been specified in print, in the United States it is recommended that animal graves be three feet deep and considering that Ludwig had to have ingress and egress to Minki's grave it in all likelihood was dug at least that deep if not indeed even deeper. Attorney Brigitte Vosen backed up her client's assertions on that point.

"Möglicherweise ist der Kläger anhand des Aushubs von einem größeren Grab ausgegangen," she averred to the Rheinische Post in a second article also dated September 14th. (See "Fünfzig mal Vierzig Zentimter sollen für Minki reichen.") "Dies ist jedoch notwendig, um ein Tier ebenerdig in das Grab zu legen."

From that she deduced a superfluous and totally meaningless conclusion. "Ich bleibe dabei: Minki liegt (im Grab, in) diesem Feld," she summed up to the Rheinische Post.

That is beside the point. It is not important that her remains merely lie in the same field in which she was interred but rather that her grave not be disturbed by her client's placing of boundary stones on top of it and stealing mementos.

Richterin Miriam Pels Was the Media's Darling for a Day

Once it finally came time for Pels to hand down her verdict she followed the time-honored tradition of jurists and cat-haters everywhere by first professing her abiding devotion for the species before in the very next breath doing an abrupt about-face and lowering the boom on Minki and her remains. "Ich kenne auch eine Katze von zu Hause," she declared in open court according to the first of the two articles in the Rheinische Post.

Following that she launched into an all-out assault on all honesty, morality, decency and, above all, justice by declaring that a fifty by forty centimeter plot of earth was good enough for the likes of Minki. Press reports fail to disclose how it was that she arrived at that conclusion but more than likely it was based solely upon the ingrained favoritism that members of her disreputable profession constantly accord to the business community and the rich at the expense of cats, other animals, Mother Earth, and the impecunious.

In other words, her ruling amounts to little more than a classic example of an ingrained prejudice masquerading as justice. "Das behauptet der Kläger, aber es gibt dafur keinen Beweis," she howled from the bench like a banshee but such a determination is hardly either convincing or fair.

For example, Ludwig never was called upon to explain why exactly it was that she had allowed Mike S. to assume custody over a much larger plot of ground for the better part of a year without any objections from her. In hindsight it thus would appear that he had more than ample reason for believing that he had legal title to Minki's grave in its original size.

Furthermore, since Pels was so unwilling to even seriously examine Mike S.'s claims concerning the rightful size of Minki's grave, it did not come as any surprise that she also denied him compensation for the loss of his Errinnerungsstücke. Since he quite obviously did not steal it, the logical culprit would be Ludwig given that she already has admitted to desecrating Minki's grave.

That, however, would have been too much of a logical connection for someone of Pels' ilk to consider. Nevertheless, under such circumstances the burden of proof that she did not steal it should have rested squarely upon her shoulders.

This case also demonstrates how radically different the legal establishment treats the graves of cats as opposed to those that contain human remains. For instance, individuals who are caught desecrating the graves of the latter and stealing mementos, flowers, and other objects are most assuredly arrested and prosecuted. When it comes to the graves of cats, however, anything goes and Pels, a fully-fledged stooge for money and the establishment if ever one existed, calls that justice!

She did entertain, if ever so briefly, the notion of having Minki's remains exhumed in order to determine exactly where they now lie in relation to the boundary stones but she not only ultimately rejected that idea but in doing so turned Mike S.'s own words against him. "Er hat ja vermittlet, dass es ihm insbesondere darauf ankommt, dass die Katze pietätvoll begraben wird," the Rheinische Post reported her as opining in its first September 14th article. Sie wisse nicht "ob das so sinnvoll ist, die Totenruhe an der Stelle zu stören."

On that point even Barthel seemed to concur in that since Minki, for some unknown reason, had been interred without the benefit of either embalming fluid or even a coffin there would not be very much left of her remains for the court to examine

So at the end of it all Pels, the self-professed cat-lover, not only tossed out Mike S.'s lawsuit but ordered him to pay the bill for bringing this action. Press reports have not spelled out the particulars but that most assuredly includes court costs and likely Ludwig's legal bill to boot.

It has been stated before but it nevertheless bears repeating: the poor and those of moderate means should endeavor to stay as far away as it is humanly possible from cops, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and politicians in that the legal and political establishment exists solely for the purpose of serving its own members, the rich, and certain powerful interest groups. Even worse, those predators and professional leeches understand only too well which individuals and animals that they can sock it to with impunity.

Mike S. did not personally attend the hearing and, thanks to quirk in deutschen Recht, he was given until September 28th in order to appeal Pels' judgment. "Das ist so, als wäre er nicht da gewesen," Barthel explained to the Rheinische Post in the first of the two September 14th articles cited supra. "Das heißt, die ganze Geschichte würde dann eben noch mal von vorne anfangen."

Since no additional article have appeared in the German press relating to this matter it is, leider, not known if Mike S. elected to avail himself of that loophole. Unless he and Barthel have additional evidence at their disposal which would help to substantiate that what Ludwig did to Minki's grave was illegal or that she stole the Erinnerungsstücke there would not appear to be much point in mounting an appeal, at least not in Pels' court.

Lawyers are highly creative professionals, however, and if Barthel tried a new tact in a different venue the outcome possibly could be altogether different. Even so, the deck is clearly stacked against him and his client.

Besides, Mike S. has far more pressing concerns that call for his immediate attention. First of all, he has to decide if he wants to leave Minki's remains at Tierfriedhof Mönchengladbach or to have them exhumed and reburied elsewhere.

Should he ultimately elect to leave them where they are, he must somehow come to terms with the possibility that Ludwig will engineer additional desecrations. In that light, it might be worthwhile for him to speak to Barthel about the feasibility of obtaining an injunction that would prevent her from making further encroachments on Minki's grave.

Then there is the matter of the €210 that he is obliged to fork over to her every three years and it is far from clear whether that sum is a lease fee, a grave maintenance fee, or both. At the end of the day the particulars do not really matter.

That is because unless Ludwig receives her thirty pieces of silver triennially that is going to be the end of both Minki's remains and her grave. Looking even farther down the road, Mike S. has to be concerned about what is going to happen to Minki's grave once he is no longer above ground himself and there is no one left to pony up for him.

Those same sort of arrangements exist in America but at least some pet cemeteries also offer more permanent solutions as well. For example, the world renowned Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, thirty-seven kilometers north of Manhattan, charges owners a yearly grave maintenance fee of US$76 but they also are given the option of purchasing an endowment for US$2,500 which will ensure the perpetual care of their cat's grave. By contrast, the same level of care is advertised for an investment of only US$100 at Keystone Pet Cemetery in Mertztown, one-hundred-six kilometers northwest of Philadelphia.

In both England and the United States, most caring owners elect to bury their cats in their gardens and in this instance it is far from clear why Mike S. shunned that alternative unless he perhaps lives in an apartment. Even if he had been inclined to have taken that route he eventually could have wound up in the same pickle that he is now in given that home burials are only a permanent solution to this troubling dilemma so long as ownership of the property remains in the family.

A pet cemetery is therefore perhaps a better option for owners who want to ensure that their cats' graves remain undisturbed and that memories of them endure. Hartsdale, for example, has been in business ever since 1826 and is still going strong today.

Mike S. Sits on This Bench Almost Every Day in Order to Be with Minki

Most such facilities are, unfortunately, rather expensive. For example, burial plots at Hartsdale cost between US$1,100 and US$3,200. Wooden coffins go for between US$350 and US$800 and there is an internment fee of US$525.

Their plots are large enough, however, to accommodate up to three cats. In most cases, US$2,000 is usually sufficient in order to cover the cost of a plot, a coffin, and the digging of the grave.

A tombstone can add between US$850 and US$1,695 to an owner's bill and color portraits retail for between US$450 and US$650. The cemetery also sells black and white ones for a more reasonable US$245 to US$350.

At Keystone, the entire shebang can he had for as little at US$699 and that includes the US$100 fee for the perpetual care of the grave. Burial plots sell for US$300 and there is an internment fee of US$100. Also included in the package are a headstone, epithet, and artwork.

Leider, pet cemeteries are prone to the same vicissitudes of time as private burials. For instance, their proprietors can either pull up stakes and go out of business for one reason or another or fail to live up to their agreements.

Owners therefore might want to retain the services of a lawyer in order to look after their cats' graves after they have died. That is all the more imperative given that the American landscape is littered with pet cemeteries that have been abandoned.

Weeds and discarded beer and wine bottles have reclaimed them and vandals have knocked over and broken most of the tombstones. As such, they are sad and depressing spectacles, especially when one pauses to contemplate all the lovely cats that repose there and the tremendous amounts of love that their owners had for them. Now, nothing at all remains of them, not even their names and faces; all has been lost to both abject neglect and the ravages of time.

Cremation is the preferred method of getting rid of dead cats nowadays. While there can be little disagreement that it is a considerably cheaper and less bothersome option than a conventional burial, the fact remains that cats are living creatures, not spirits, with a physical presence in the here and now and to reduce them to ashes is an abomination.

Even if their remains do eventually turn to dust, they still require some type of physical presence in this world even if it is only symbolic. Cremation on the other hand is the equivalent to condemning them to be out of sight and mind for all of eternity.

Cats accordingly should be embalmed and placed in expensive coffins with their toys, blankets, and other personal objects. They then need to be laid to rest in well-tended graves that will endure until the end of time. Tombstones that bear their names and photographs are accordingly essential.

Regardless of the cost and effort involved, cats are deserving of nothing but the very best! In reality, however, all but a few of them are treated like yesterday's newspapers.

Shelters, Animal Control officers, veterinarians, and most owners simply deposit their corpses in the trash. Garbagemen collect those that have been murdered by motorists and dispose of them in the same manner that they do with the leftover slop that they collect from restaurants.

"Wenn Tiere sterben, wird es in Deutschland schnell emotional," the Aachener Zeitung proclaimed on September 14th. (See "Bizarrer Prozess um das Grab von Katze Minki.") "Das Grab einer Kurzhaarkatze in Mönchengladbach erhitzt die Gemüter allerdings auf beispiellose Art."

While that declaration is certainly applicable in the case of Mike S., the same most definitely cannot be said of either Ludwig or Pels. It is not even true of the German people in general who each year stand idly by as hunters legally gun down thousands of cats in cold blood.

Like their counterparts within the thoroughly detestable American media, many publications and news outlets across Deutschland rarely pass up an opportunity to defame and to spread malicious lies about the species. (See Deutsche Welle of Köln, articles dated August 8, 2017 and October 5, 2018 and entitled, respectively, "Your Cat Is Killing the Earth -- but You Can Prevent It" and "Insect Pet Food to Offset Carbon Pawprint.")

The Germans' mistreatment of bears and wolves is equally deplorable. (See Cat Defender post of June 30, 2006 entitled "Cheap, Bloodthirsty Bavarians Mercilessly Gun Down the First Brown Beat to Visit das Vaterland in One-Hundred-Seventy-One Years," the Aachener Zeitung, September 23, 2016, "Wolf vermehrt sich weiter in Deutschland," and Deutsche Welle, April 18, 2018, "Bundestag Committee Debates Wolves' Protected Status in Germany.")

By her desecration of Minki's grave, Ludwig has demonstrated ohne jeden Zweifel that she does not have so much as an iota of respect for either dead cats or the feelings of their grieving owners. Now, thanks to Pels' shameful sucking up to money, the same can be said for Rheydter Magistrates' Court.

Not only has Mike S. been put through an exceedingly distressful period, but he would appear to be just about out of all options and that in turn has placed Minki's remains in a totally untenable position. Although he is described by his attorney as being a normal person with a job, a wife, and a child, that has not deterred the media and others from casting aspersions upon his character.

"Manche nennen das einen 'irren' Prozess. Aber so irre ist gar nicht," Barthel averred to the Rheinische Post in the first September 14th article. "Er ist kein Spinner (crackpot)."

None of that is in any way meant to imply that Germans hold a monopoly when it comes to slandering cat-lovers as crazies. For example, in July of 2008 kindhearted Brooklynite Chris Muth was not only arrested for attempting to save the life of a cat in extremis but he additionally was confined to a mental hospital for six days. (See Cat Defender post of August 8, 2008 entitled "A Brooklyn Man Gets Locked Up in a Nuthouse and Then Loses Digs, Job, and Honey All for Attempting to Save His Friend's Cat, Rumi.")

Although some may be inclined to laugh right along with the crowd, whenever an individual who only wanted to provide a suitable resting place for his beloved cat is divested of his property and subjected to a torrent of public ridicule that is a rather poignant reminder of just how little taste, morality, and decency that remain in this world. Although the doors to the courthouses may have creaked slightly ajar in recent times, that is only a facade in that obtaining even the tiniest measure of justice for either cats or their aggrieved owners remains a chimera.

Photos: Christophe Gateau of the Rheinische Post (Minki's grave and bench) and Ilgner Detlef of the Rheinische Post (Pels).