James Gregory Wicker appears to have voluntarily admitted to the local police that he strangled one of nine foster cats being cared for by a female foster working with Appalachian Peace Paws Rescue. The woman appears to have been his girlfriend. The cat was not killed but injured. The man has been charged with animal cruelty.
A Morgantown (West Virginia) police report tells us that Animal Control went to the foster’s home and found nine foster cats one of which was injured. We don’t have a report on the extent of the injuries.
Wicker appears to have been the boyfriend of a female foster working with Appalachian Peace Paws Rescue (according to the rescue – see below).
Monongalia County Animal Control are working with police to care for the animals. I presume that they have been redistributed amongst other foster carers.
Appalachian Peace Paws Rescue – Facebook statement
Having visited the Facebook webpage of Appalachian Peace Paws Rescue I can add some detail to the story because 10 hours ago they posted some information about it.
Note: I amended the first section of this post because it was incorrect and came from the online newspapers. This is the most accurate version of the story! All the others are incorrect as far as I can tell.
They say that they were “blind-sided” concerning an incident involving the boyfriend of one of their fosters. Note: the newspapers reported that the man referred to (James Wicker) was the foster but apparently not.
They say that the incident did not result in the death of one of the cats but they have learnt that one of their foster kittens was intentionally injured.
All of the animals have been removed from the home of this cat foster carer.
“The injured kitten is stable and in the care of one of our trusted veterinary partners. We extend our thanks to our dedicated team and community personnel for making sure all involved were safe, and to our other fosters for stepping up and ensuring all animals had a temporary place to stay.
Despite our shock and heartbreak over this incident, we are so grateful to see so many people band together to help our animals and make things right again.”
It is obviously very unusual for this sort of event to happen and it highlights it seems the rare but potential dangers from relatives of fosters. The relatives and significant others are not vetted I guess and in this case with tragic consequences.
P.S. WVNEWS.COM have a headline: “Man arrested after strangling 9 cats in Morgantown WV”. To the best of my knowledge this is pure fake news because it is grossly exaggerated.
P.P.S. I’ll speculate that the female foster insisted that her boyfriend give himself up to the police in order to protect herself which if true I wholly agree with and would admire her for it.
Source: NY Post and FB page of Appalachian Peace Paws Rescue.
Cat fostering: We take in “no one’s pets” and make them our own, even if only for a little while.
Fosters are needed so desperately that perhaps investigation of the home situation is not addressed as thoroughly as should be.