This is the story of a Missouri mother who recently went to jail over the family cat. Andrea Boenker, a resident of Wentzville, was arrested recently, all because her then 2-year-old daughter let the new family cat out of the house. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Wentzville is a city located in western St. Charles County and has a population of around 30,000.
Andrea is the mother of two daughters and a nurse. Her story began last summer when the family got a new cat. Thriller, a black and white beauty, was let out of the house by Andrea’s daughter Morgan , who was only two at the time. Thriller ended up at the local shelter. Andrea went down to the shelter, where she paid the fines to the shelter and the city to bail Thriller out of kitty jail. She thought that was the end of things.
Andrea recently got the shock of her life when she came home from work and her husband told her two police officer’s had come to their home with a warrant for her arrest. There was an outstanding animal at large ticket, which is given when someone violates a leash law. Many areas now consider cats running free illegal, and not only pertaining to dogs. So Andrea went down to the local police station to clear things up about their cat. The doors locked behind her when she went inside the station, and Andrea was informed she was under arrest.
The problem started when Andrea says a clerk and an alderman told her she wouldn’t have to go to court if she paid the fines. Apparently the information given Andrea was unreliable, and Andrea missed the court date because she was told she didn’t have to show up. She admits receiving the notice to appear, but disregarded it. The warrant the officer’s had come to serve was a “failure to appear,” meaning she had failed to show up for court, which automatically puts you on the bench warrant roster. Sometimes it takes awhile to be served, due to there being so many people out there committing small crimes that police don’t have the manpower to deliver warrants in a timely manner for minor offenses.
Andrea was in jail for less than three hours, but she wants to warn others out there of how little it takes to get locked up these days. KSDK5 News spoke with the mayor of Wentzville, who admitted there are problems with cats being on the animal ordinance. He said the board of alderman will be discussing kinks in the system in the near future.
Meanwhile, Andrea now has a criminal record. If she’s never been in trouble with the law before, she can likely get it expunged by a circuit court judge. I wanted to do this article because so many cat lovers who reside outside the United States don’t realize some of the lame laws we have to put up with. It’s illegal to allow a cat outside unsupervised in many areas. Cat owners who live within city limits usually have more strict rules than those living in a country environment. I wanted to share Andrea’s story so no more cat ladies have to spend time in jail over an escaped cat. If you ever get a citation for animal at large, be sure you know what you’re required to do, and be sure that information comes from a dependable source.
I’m curious what the readers here think of this, especially those living outside the U.S.
The problem in America is the animal rights movement which has hundreds of millions of dollars and uses our legislative process to get their bills passed and laws passed that attack our use of animals on every level. What is not fully understood is that the REAL agenda of the animals rights activists is to abolish the human/animal interaction completely. The mindset is so sick that they believe it is better for animals to die than be in the captivity of man. Groups like the Humane Society of the United States have even infiltrated our schools, and are indoctrinating our children into a VEGAN way of life. They attack our agriculture, driving the price of food up. They attack the pet owner and breeder with laws and regulations, illegal seizure…oh it is quite despicable the tactics they use. They are laying a legal framework and a psychological belief system that can only end up with the extinction of untold numbers of species and breeds. If you doubt me, look at ALL the ISSUES AGAINST Horses, from wild horses in the west being rounded up and sent to slaughter, to carriage horses in NYC, to yes, even horse racing….go on, put those strings into your search engine, find out the real problems in america are that the people are being eaten alive by special interests that are ONLY in it for money!! They care very little about what is best for animals. If every domestic animal was spayed or neutered… how long till there are no more pets? And eventually it will affect the whole world.
Lauri, what you appear to be saying is that animal rights people are working against animal rights. I don’t understand that. You say that horses were rounded up and slaughtered. How can that benefit animal rights? Could you could explain to me why the abolishment of the human/animal interaction is on the agenda of animal rights activists? Sorry if I sound stupid but all these things seem to work against animal rights not for them. Thankfully, by the way-much appreciated.
Absolutely crazy, the law gone mad. Maybe I can just about understand the “leash law” being applied to dogs, that makes sense but as Harvey pointed out it’s madness to expect anyone to never, ever, ever let their cat out by mistake and hardly a serious crime. I feel so sorry for cats in situations like that, never to feel the sun on their backs or the grass under their paws.
I wonder how a person is supposed to be able to keep a cat indoors whilst going about all the normal house-hold chores which entail going in and out the house numerous times a day, often carrying things, It means freedom of movement is restricted and controlled virtually turning your house into a prison. Cats can escape given only half a second of an opportunity and will not come back until they are ready. These laws are imposing conditions that are impossible to comply with. For the people who pass this legislation that doesn’t matter. The important thing for them is to harass and intimidate the general population.
Exactly, Harvey.
It’s miserable for cats and people both.
Too many people messing up. If the human population of America was halved there’d be no problem with cats. 😉 The trouble is the world would have to do the same thing. The world works on economic growth and captitalism which works against all animals wild and domestic and it works against the average man and woman but supports people with money.
Our cats nap on the cat trees during the day and play at night. So most of them are off the floor for cleaning and that’s a job in itself. The ones who enjoy the floor are placed in the feeding cages and eat during sweeping and mopping.
Many shelter have the adopter sign an agreement the cat must live inside. They have the right to visit and take the cat if its outside.
This shelter condition (to keep adopted cats inside) indicates the different culture between Americans and Brits. We have the same language but we are quite different.
In the Middle East, Cyprus, Turkey, and most countries of the world 99% of cats live full time outside. They have lived that way since long before villages , towns, and houses were built, the same as birds, wild animals, trees, and butterflies. To enforce indoors living on these creatures is hardly something to be protected by laws, but rather a case for the opposite can be made. This just another example of how the USA is rapidly becoming a lunatic asylum.
The actions of the authorities could be seen as detrimental to the health and well being of Andrea’s children as well as the cat involved since she was thus prevented from protecting and caring for them whilst undergoing this highly questionable arbitrary arrest based on crass insane laws. I suggest the authorities and police should be prosecuted for child and animal cruelty.
I like the point that you make about cats in Cyprus and Turkey etc. live as community cats. That is the natural way for the domestic cat to live. It is the way the domestic cat lived when it was first domesticated. It is probably the best way for a domestic cat to live. The gradual increase on pressure in America to keep cats inside is a gradual drift away from naturalness and you wonder where it is going to lead to. Ultimately, it is about attitude: the differences in attitude of the people of America compared to the people of Europe and in the area where you live. There almost seems to be a sliding scale.
Wentzville’s on I-70?
Yes, the main road from St. Louis! I am an Englishman.
This is really a classic case of the failure of leash laws or laws concerning animals and shows how indiscriminate they can be because the person arrested is clearly not a criminal. She is the last person who should be arrested and while they are arresting her dozens of genuine criminals are walking around the neighbourhood.
It’s a bit of a cock up really and a series of mistakes built upon a rather indiscriminately applied bit of legislation. Is it true that in America there is a very gradual tightening up of the freedoms of cat owners? It seems to me that at a local level there are more and more laws which prevent cats going outside. I might be wrong but that’s the impression I get.
I wonder whether it is actually possible to effectively enforce laws which prevent cats going outside the home unsupervised. It seems very complicated to do this.
However, I can understand the reasoning behind the introduction of these new laws that prevent cats going outside unsupervised. It is just that cats tend to escape from the home for all kinds of reasons and if that happens the police have to do something about it but do they have the time and the motivation to do it because this is such a low-level crime.
It couldn’t be more low-level and innocuous. In fact a domestic cat being outside unsupervised, logically, is not a crime whereas by contrast a person hitting another person without justification is obviously a crime, at a commonsense level.
I think this is the underlying problem with animal laws that require people to supervise their cat outside. Failure to do so is not an obvious crime because nobody is being hurt and nobody is suffering loss just because the cat is outside unsupervised. I wonder whether these laws will survive.
I so agree!!
Pleased that you agree.