Cohasset, Minnesota, USA: Pam Dowell’s neighbor, Steven Lee Mishow, always said that he hated cats. He said that he would shoot cats who came onto his property. He said he could do it because he’d be defending and preserving his property.
Pam Dowell knew about the man’s hatred of cats. She invited him into her home and begged him, “please don’t harm my pets”.
Pam Dowell is a community leader. She has a voice and has contributed hugely to the community. There is a page on her on the Herald Review.
One stormy night in late September three cats went missing, one of them was Olivia, the cat companion of Pam Dowell. Another was a feral cat named Emerald who slept at her house and the third was Pumpkin a neighbor’s cat.
Olivia was very important to Pam Dowell. Olivia loved to play outside with Pumpkin. She was a family member and often slept with Pam under the covers. This was a typical close relationship, and Olivia was much more than “just a cat”.
It seems that she informed the local authority about the missing cats who were unwilling to help. She went to the police who informed her that it was unlikely that they would investigate the matter. Dowell is a retired cop so she took the matter into their own hands. Dowell worked as a licensed Minnesota Police Officer between 1988 and 1996. She retired after she was assaulted while on duty which left her disabled.
Dowell and a neighbor went public. They went before the local City Council and pleaded their case. This got back to the local newspaper and television station. As a result, Itasca County prosecutors became interested.
Then gradually Mishow’s attitude towards cats leaked out. It transpired that he told authorities that he shot at the cats intending to kill them. One of Dowell’s neighbors enticed Mishow to admit shooting Dowell’s cat and the conversation was recorded.
Then bit by bit Mishow’s hatred of domestic and feral cat became public knowledge.
“I will say this, there is a bad feral cat problem… Are you writing this down? That’s the reason I did what I did. I shot at them to protect and preserve my property.”
It appears that the police have enough evidence to charge Mishow with a felony but prosecutors say that they did not have enough evidence to charge him with killing the other cats. I take this to mean that they could charge him with killing Olivia.
Some cat haters will say that Mishow had a right to do what he did and once again I will say that he did not. Zach Nugent, spokesman for the Minnesota Humane Society said:
“Despite what some people think, you do not have the right to shoot a domesticated animal in your yard especially if you know it someone’s pet.”
That is stating the obvious but it needs to be restated. Then there was a backlash against Pam Dowell because there are people who would support Mishow. They too hate cats and believe that there is a feral cat problem although in this county the authorities take a neutral stance towards feral cats.
Fellow cat haters tried to verbally attack Dowell on social media with the objective of undermining her. They brought up her past history and tried to dig up some dirt. This became a war between cat owners and cat haters which is commonplace.
At the end of the day, Pam Dowell became fed up with the situation. She believes that Mishow will receive a slap on the wrist with a misdemeanour charge and nothing will change. She decided to leave the area. She’s put her house up for sale.
Audio recording of Steven Mishow admitting to shooting neighbors’ cats
She appears to be disillusioned with the police. She says that the loss of any pet is hard when the loss is because of an act of violence; it’s traumatic. She wanted to make some noise about it and to make sure people know that they can’t do this and get away with it. She wanted the sheriff’s deputies to be aware that a crime had taken place.
“I’m going to move to someplace more civilized, that’s the only thing that’s going to change.”
Sources: Google Images, Herald Review and Star Tribune.
P.S. Note from Michael (Admin). There are a lot of comments, the majority of which are mud slinging. They are indirectly relevant to the article and shine a light on the human relationships behind the cat shooting, which is why I allow 99.5% of them. Some are removed because of the level of insult in them. IF YOU COMMENT AND CRITICISE SOMEONE EXPECT THE SAME IN RETURN. DON’T COMPLAIN TO ME ABOUT IT.
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The courts told the cat killer’s harasser sister to take her page down.
Thanks for the info Chris. Do you have the FB page web address?
Sorry, Michael. There was/is a hater FB page set up some mean girls that does nothing but make personal slanderous attacks on the victim/s of this crime. I was speaking to their bullying antics. Pets were killed. What kind of neighbor does this? Only a horrid one.
Chris, what point are you making in your long comment? I just can’t detect a point, an argument. Please clarify but make it polite.
These are the questions to be asked to the self-righteous cat killer supporters, any and all of them.
Have any of you ever let a pet outside in your yard or are your pets leashed all the time?
How do you know where these cats were killed? Do you have more knowledge than the police and attorney’s office?
Who says these cats ever went on the cat killer’s property EVER?
Why would cats go near a place with a dog?
Why does a person get to threaten to kill others pets? It would appear this killer told others he just hated cats and planned to kill them all. Could there be a strong possibility that this killer went out to hunt cats? Yes.
Why was the cat killer out in a storm in the early morning hours with a scoped gun (as he alleges)?
If the cat killer was using a pellet gun (not one of us knows what he actually did to cause the death of the cats as the bodies were not recovered. He could have wounded them, paralyzed them, slit their throats, hit them with a hammer, only he knows how he actually killed them). Pellet guns are not meant to kill cats. They would maim them though. Animal cruelty!
Who was at fault because the cat killer moved into a broken down trailer? Did the City of Cohasset have an active blight investigation going on the trailer he moved into? Yes. Does the trailer owner or former tenants have accountability in the state of disrepair described on the trailer? Yes.
Were neighborhood animals DNA-ed so that verification could be made on what animal left feces, urine, garbage, and gnawed at wires? Is the cat killer’s property near woods? If there was an active blight complaint was there garbage? Could the cat killer decipher between rats, moles, voles, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, bears, cats, dogs, weasels, deer, etc.? Did the former tenants have cats and/or dogs? Yes. Did the former tenants leave bags of dirty diapers all around the trailer property? Yes.
Does the cat killer have his own criminal record? According to public records he does, which include indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, tampering with a motor vehicle and a DNR violation?
Has the cat killer ever had any behavioral problems in his past? Have other neighbors moved as result of living next to him? Yes. Has he been removed or asked to not attend public activities because of outbursts. Yes. Has he frightened others? Yes. Has he ever been evicted from a property due to behaviors? Yes. Has he ever been seen being rough with animals including his own dog? Yes. Has he ever yelled in public racist words such as “drunk indian” and “res n-gger” and those “butt-f-ckers.” Yes. Has he ever made complaints to law enforcement and others about harassment from his own family members? Yes.
Does the cat killer use or sell drugs?
Did the cat killer admit to killing the cats? Yes.
Did Animal Cruelty occur? Yes.
If the cat killer killed your pet/s, what would you expect for his punishment?
Michael, my email is not working. I would like to write to you. I wrote to these people. I listened to the awful audio of this man admitting he how killed the cats. I have to believe that the police and attorney’s office know much more than anyone on the outside of this case. Animal cruelty cases are noted these days because often in large mass killings people find out later the killers were animal abusers. This person also has a criminal history of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct in court files.