It looks like the life of a six-year-old rescue cat, Max, is worth $300 in terms of compensation to the cat’s owner, Margaret Clarke, after Max had been unjustifiably shot dead with a county-issue .22 calibre rifle by an animal control officer, Brian Blackwell.
The officer was suspended on full pay and then sacked after an internal investigation as to why he had shot the lady’s cat on her porch. He had justified his actions in saying the cat lunged at him. In previous news posts we learned that he had been told about Max. It was clear to me at that time that Blackwell had acted wholly incorrectly.
Margaret reached an agreement in full and final settlement for $300 compensation together with the promise of a new cat, free of charge, from the local animal shelter.
Max had been adopted from the local animal shelter.
The terms of the agreement included an agreement that Margaret Clarke:
“releases, acquits and forever discharges Baldwin County from any and all actions, causes of actions, claims and demands, damages, costs……and compensation arising from the death of her pet cat, Max on April 15, 2016.”
Comment: it is interesting (a) to discover that the officer was in the wrong as was believed by people like me and (b) that they came to the sum of $300 for compensation. I wonder how they arrived at that figure and (c) this was a crime, the crime of criminal damage. He was not prosecuted in the criminal courts. Surprised?
I wrote about the killing in an earlier post.
Source: Cat owner settles with county for $300 | News | unionrecorder.com
Yep, as usual I agree with you. This lady has failed her cat or she was pushed into this.