This is a sad update coming from the Justice for Sage website. Despite a $63,000 reward offered for the person(s) responsible for the horrific death of a Utah cat, despite this being the worst case of animal cruelty to hit Northern Utah and despite enough evidence for the Clearfield Police to ask for a lie detector test, the case is closed. A new proposal titled “Sage’s Law” is also in the works to establish an animal cruelty database in Utah.
A June 11 post stated:
“After receiving over $63,000.00 in reward money, hundreds of “strong leads”, plus weeks and weeks of being reassured by the Davis County Animal Care and Control, Clearfield Police Department, the Humane Society of Utah, and the Humane Society of Northern Utah we have now received official notification that the case is now officially closed on the worst case of animal abuse they have ever seen.”
According to the website, the Clearfield Police Department doesn’t have the “interest or intestinal fortitude to pursue any further.” What kind of message is this sending out to animal abusers? I guess they’ll just have to sit back and wait until the same thing is done to a person. Because this type of cruelty almost always leads to violence against humans.
A Change.org petition has been set up titled Family’s Pet Tortured To Death. Pass “Sage’s Law” For An Animal Abuse Registry. Gina Durney along with thousands of members of the Cats of the Instagram community are taking action by urging the Utah State Legislature to introduce and pass “Sage’s Law”. This legislation will establish a public Animal Abuse Registry.
Sage’s Law also proposes upgrading animal cruelty charges from a 3rd-degree felony to a 2nd-degree felony with $10,000 fine and 1-15 years in prison, with mandatory 10-year sentences if the animal dies as a result of the injuries.
People convicted of animal cruelty would be required to register and prohibited from adopting or purchasing an animal ever again. Animal shelters and pet stores would have access to the registry. Local residents, like Sage’s family, would be able to get online and access a database to check for abusers who live nearby.
The belief was and still is that someone close to Sage’s family is responsible. The torture and then delivery of the beaten cat back to his family wasn’t a random act. It was a message sent by someone with a grudge against the family. Whether this person has friends in the police department or whether this monster is being protected by his family, something needs to happen.
How can we as a society sweep this under the rug as though it never happened? The Clearfield Police Department will regret closing the case one day when this person kills someone and then confesses to Sage’s death. Most serial killers start out by abusing animals.
June 24 was Day 107. Facebook: Justice for Sage once again sent out a plea for anyone who knows anything to step forward.
“It’s been reported by various crime statistic agencies and animal advocacy organizations, that most animal cruelty cases take place inside the home, by a white male, between the ages of 20-35. It’s time to state what thousands of people already suspect. There’s a cat killer in Sage’s home. So now, what are you going to do about it?
Sage the cat was found inside his home on March 8th, tortured such that he could not walk, see, or lift his head. He died the next day, March 9th, while in the care of the vet. If it were my cat, I would turn in whoever did this. There is a $63,000 reward. Speak up, not for the reward, but because it is the right thing to do.”
A question and answer session by on June 13 by Davis County Animal Care and Control stated a person of interest did take a polygraph test and invoked their constitutional rights following the test. This tells me the person failed the polygraph.
The representative refused to answer whether the suspect was someone from Sage’s home but did say they wish someone would come forward that would put a suspect and Sage together at the right time.
Unless concrete evidence surfaces, the case is dead. Please, people. It can’t end like this…
Elisa
Previous articles on Sage
- Reward currently at $28,000+ after cruelly tortured Utah cat succumbed to his injuries
- Was Sage the cat pushed through the dog door by the person who tortured him?
- More than 150 attend vigil in an outpouring of grief and sympathy for Sage the tortured cat
- Sage cat killing: The plot thickens
- Sage the cat update
People usually get away with things like because people don’t care except for a few do
Yes, how many times have we seen this sort of outcome in respect of cat cruelty criminal cases? I’m not sure that I’ve seen one example of a criminal case regarding cat cruelty coming to trial and the perpetrator convicted and punished. Perhaps I have forgotten the successful ones and they are there on this website but the far more common and likely outcome is the one that we read about on this page. It is sickening. I give up with the police and justice for animals.
This is insanely unjust, for Sage, and all of the other “Sages” past, present and future. We cannot let this subhuman remain free. That police department is making a big mistake.Sage’s life matters.
This person should be punished to the full extent of the law sick bastard!!! Wtf????