By Elisa Black-Taylor
A Mesa, Arizona serial catnapper (cat thief) was sentenced August 14 for catnapping a cat named Biscuit, although he admitted to Judge Lue Sang he’d catnapped between 30-40 cats in his neighborhood. Andrew Scott Graham received a light sentence, including 36 months unsupervised probation, a fine, a mental health evaluation and 30 days house arrest.
Graham was caught on CCTV video last August, where he can be seen taking Biscuit. Owner Amy Kalis wanted to see Graham thrown in jail. Residents in the neighborhood witnessed Graham throwing a cat believed to be Biscuit out of his car, who was found mutilated the next day. Authorities then changed their story and said the dead cat wasn’t Biscuit, and lack of evidence led to the catnapping case being thrown out of court in Maricopa County last September.
Animal abuse charges were filed after authorities viewed the CCTV footage. Three other neighborhood cats were found dead the day after Biscuit was catnapped, one of them identified as Biscuit. That’s why animal lovers, along with others who had followed the case, were shocked when Maricopa County dropped the animal abuse charges. There simply wasn’t enough evidence.
So the only charge Maricopa County could arrest Graham on was for catnapping Biscuit. Graham lives with family in the neighborhood where the cats went missing. Now residents are worried about their children, as well as their pets.
Amy Kalis told the judge Biscuit was a member of her family for 12 years. Although the judge acknowledged Biscuit was priceless to Amy, the six month jail time didn’t fit the crime, since catnapping isn’t considered a felony.
Neighbors say a total of 12 cats went missing, with two found dead. Graham had cat hair and blood in the trunk of his car. A bad odor was also present, but Graham explains it all, saying a group of cats got into a fight and jumped in the trunk one night. He has admitted to taking several dozen cats, but says he only took them home and played with them before turning them loose. Residents in the area believe Graham has been stealing cats for three to five years now.
Amy is traumatized after seeing the remains of her mutilated cat, and gave a statement to news media following the sentencing.
“He destroyed the memory of him [Biscuit]. Now I have the memory of a horrific image after identifying him of the crime against him. I still believe he committed this crime against Biscuit, mutilated him and killed him.”
If the cat found wasn’t Biscuit, then where WAS Biscuit? Amy’s cat was never seen again after Graham took the cat.
Part of the sentencing prohibits Graham from making any contact with Amy. One change residents in the area would like to see happen is for law enforcement to keep the remains of any mutilated cats as evidence, in case it can help convict a future case. None of the three cats found dead and mutilated were kept, and could have played an important role in getting a conviction.
It’s a shame this man got off with such a light sentence. When animal cruelty isn’t taken seriously, eventually it’s a person who becomes the next victim. Maricopa County should be held accountable for any crimes Graham commits in the future. Animal abuse usually escalates to crimes against society, and Graham will be free to walk the streets of Mesa after serving a month on house arrest. Hopefully those in his neighborhood will keep their cats safely inside.
Elisa
Source: lifewithcats.tv
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
3 or 4 years ago we had a small shop, to help bring in some funds for the sanctuary. on one of the walls i decided to put up pictures of various animals to be rehomed, cats included of course. i got some good, bad and downright strange customers asking about the animals, but the one that stands out in my memory is a young family, mam and dad still in their teens/early twenties, little bot of 2 or 3 yrs in a pushchair. i didnt actually like the look of them or the way they were going on, shoplifters i thought. they stopped in front of the photos and talked about various animals they would like (over my dead body i thought!) when dad said to the little boy ‘do you know what you do with cats? you grab them by the tail an swing them till they scream’ he was laughing as he said this so of course the little boy laughed too. i wont go into details of what i said but they never came back to my shop again. what worries me is that there is that small innocent child learning about life from this total waste of skin, so he will now grow up thinking that that sort of behaviour is normal. these kids grow up to be these crazy b*******s who kill and maim for fun. i can only hope this monster gets what he deserves. R.I.P biscuit and all those other innocent animals who fall into evil hands.
sorry that was supposed to say little boy!!
Only my opinion, but I don’t believe that this sort of deviant person can benefit from treatment (unless it is EXTREME shock therapy that dismantles his brain). I don’t believe that there is any rehabilitation for his type of thinking.
Too bad he got off so lightly. He needs to be taken out of society before he escalates to mutilating other species, like kids.
Could be right. Stick him a secure mental hospital and drug him up for the rest of his life. He will probably be a danger to any living creature for the rest of his life.
Yes, this is a very dangerous person.
Thanks to “P.O.C” came across a new American word “CATNAPPING”.In Indian English(British English) the word “Catnapping” is associated with illegal sleeping while on duty.I presume this “Catnapper” would graduate to serious human crimes from just kidnapping cats and hurting or killing them.”Psycho’s” exist in every society, culture and Country and here we have a “Catsnapper Psycho”.
I learnt it as well, Rudolph. It is an Americanism that I had not heard before. Maybe Elisa made it up for the first time 😉
It must come, as you imply, from “kidnapping”.
Actually, words like that are widely used here – catnapping, kidnapping, dognapping, babynapping.
My favorite new word is snottsnboogers. That’s a Furby word for a URI.
Elisa
This is probably a brilliant article however I can’t read it. I already at times feel very fragile and pretty much at breaking point with all the evil in the world. If I could do something about it then I would read it and act. From the title I can imagine the horrors your article contains which is more than enough for me. I’m very sorry 🙁
I understand your feelings completely. I am better reading words that seeing pictures. It is almost impossible for me to look at pictures of animal abuse. I’ll try and see if Elisa write about some nice stuff. There is less of it in the newspapers.
Michael please don’t change anything I’m just not myself at the min thats all, mainly because of all the cruelty about. This is your website and I know you will do whats in the best interests of it and your regular contributors which sadly at the moment I’m not (although I do love it 🙂 ) If the title had read ‘Cat torturer chased to local lake and drowned by angry mob’ I would have read it and felt better that justice had been done 🙂 but to think he got a tap on the wrist I just think ‘why would I want to even know about that?’ Sorry its just me 🙁
It’s not a simple case of animal cruelty. It is also a case of cruelty and distress inflicted upon the owner as well as the economic and emotional investment in the cat being trashed. When the law proves itself to be inadequate or biased then people just may take the law unto their own hands. This judge lacks common-sense and reasoning ability. What most people and judges do not understand is that the fundamentals of Anglo Saxon common law are that the law is found in the people, and not issued from an autocratic sector. This is an obvious example of this founding principal being ignored. Now the problems begin.
Right on, Harvey! My thoughts exactly.
By the way Michael – first time – got an ad on this page which automatically launches a video with sound and you can’t stop it.
It is probably that poisonous embedded video that Elisa found. I will delete it. The other one at the top of the page is OK.
Thanks for telling me.
I remember when this started. I’d not be able to contain myself if I was there. I would break the law. This man would not survive.
I’d comment but what I have to say is unprintable, even digitally.
I know how you feel – the kind of revenge I’d want on this man can’t be talked about out loud. These people bring out evil in those around them including myself. It proves that after a point it is contagious.
That is an interesting word. I hate doing abuse stories like this, but it tells of the type of crazy cat (and animal in general) haters we have in this country. Until tougher animal cruelty laws are passed, it’s really dangerous to allow a cat to roam outside.
I think he is a messed up individual who just sees the cat as a very convenient living creature to hurt. He wants to hurt people but that would be a bigger crime so he picks on something easier and less of a crime. It releases his anger.
Treatment is a must.
It seems certain he steals cats for the purpose of hurting them. In which case he needs treatment as much as he needs punishing.
He appears to be one of these people who are on their way to murder, graduating from cats to people.
I have to say that the courts and police did quite well to get this far. A lot of crimes against cats are all but invisible.
The word “catnapper” is a new use of the word as it normally means someone who sleeps for short periods. That is why I explained it in brackets. In the UK we don’t know this other use.