A well-known Greenville County animal trapper has been charged with animal abandonment after he allegedly trapped several cats from a gated Simpsonville community and dumped them to fend for themselves.
According to a Simpsonville police report, Johnny Bullington, who runs Critter Zappers, a pest control company, said five or six neighbors in the Cottages at Harrison Bridge subdivision in Simpsonville paid him to trap several cats.
Bullington is accused of trapping the cat in cages and dumping them in southern Greenville County. He’s admitted to police that he released the cats near the ‘power line trail’ on Harrison Bridge Road.
Spokesman Bob Mihalic for Greenville County stated as many as 25 cats were found alive but none were the cats owned by Gary and Sunny Ward, who filed a police report in mid-February. Buster, Polly, and Dolly were raised by the family as kittens and this ordeal has taken an emotional toll on them.
Bullington said in an interview with Greenville Online that the allegations have hurt his trapping business.
HOA President Tom Johnson of the Cottages at Harrison Bridge said HOA board members were not involved but did allow two of the traps to be placed on the property and two cats were caught. Other than that, Johnson says he has no further comment.
Residents of the HMO had received a letter several weeks earlier asking the residents to stop feeding feral cats because they were causing a nuisance.
What are professional animal trapping companies doing with the cats they trap?
Bullington was the Simpsonville trapper discussed in the article shown above for PoC where I described the circumstances but didn’t name him. With such a serious charge, I prefer to wait for a media link to verify.
The cats are still missing. This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Please note I use the work ‘allegedly’ because I don’t have information at this time as to whether Bullington is disputing any of the charges. By law, cats trapped humanely must be turned over to a shelter. It would be careless for a business that traps animals to not know what to do with them after they’re trapped.
This article was breaking news and more information is likely to come in.
Johnny Bullington went to court on Friday and asked for a trial by jury. He admits in police report he committed the crime of abandonment. He has changed his business name to Alpha Animals and pest control. Please let him know this type of abuse is not acceptable. As for the HOA they are now claiming that they are a certified wildlife habitat community.
Thanks Christine. He did wrong. He got careless with the lives of cats.
Does anymore have to be said about the morons who let their kids out!!! This is their fault as much as the fuck who trapped them. KEEP THE KIDS INDOORS!!
So if your neighbor leaves their lawn furniture out, does that give you the right to steal them? No. Yes, cats should be kept indoors. But taking someone’s cats is theft, and I think the people who hired Mr. Bullington should be up on charges as well.