The Craven County (North Carolina) Sheriff’s Office is reaching out to the public for help in identifying the person/persons responsible for throwing live kittens onto the Neuse River Bridge on U.S. 17 as they drive across.
Reports have also come in that the same situation is occurring in James City on U.S. 70. Sheriff Chip Hughes reported both dead and live kittens have been recovered, with some even being thrown into the river below the bridge.
Hughes stated in a June 18 article in WRAL.com
“I can’t understand why somebody would do that. I understand that some of the cats, they are known to get up in fenders and stuff like that and that sometimes they are unable to keep hold and fall out. But this is happening more than just as a coincidental thing.”
Extra patrols are keeping a close eye on the bridge, including round the clock video and are following up and investigating any leads that come in.
Sheriff Hughes has a warning to the abuser(s):
“There will be zero tolerance for animal cruelty in Craven County. We are aggressively going after folks like this that think it’s okay to mistreat, abuse, and not care for their animals.”.
Anyone who sees or knows something about this case of animal cruelty is asked to call 9-1-1 and if confronted with this person they should attempt to get a tag number but not to try to apprehend the person.
Caution: There were several photos published of one injured kitten. I’ve used the least graphic one for this article. Another photo is available at the source for this article as well as the Craven County Sheriff’s Office Facebook community page that are more disturbing.
