Ellis Wayne Hutson, the owner of Bart, a.k.a. Zombie Cat, has speedily issued civil proceedings in the Hillsborough County Court to recover his cat from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. The custody battle was brewing and now it has broken out. I am surprised.
The papers have been received by the Humane Society. In response, the Humane Society have received an offer from a lawyer to work pro bono on their behalf. His name is Mr Thomas Gonzales of Thompson Sizemore Gonzalez & Hearing.
The chief executive of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Sherry Silk, states that they will “review all legal options to keep Bart safe and secure”.
That indicates to me that they are not necessarily going to defend the case all the way but perhaps look for a solution by negotiation within proceedings. That would probably be the best solution, in fact.
As mentioned, I’m surprised by this development because the civil proceedings have been started promptly and with confidence. It indicates to me, and it might indicate all others, that Mr Hutson is confident of success. You don’t start proceedings in the civil courts without knowing that you have a very good chance of success because going to court is stressful and often disappointing and sometimes expensive.
Mr Hutson’s confidence indicates that his story is correct, namely that Bart was hit by car and he believed that Bart had been killed and therefore asked a friend to bury his cat.
We can’t be sure but that is what this current development indicates. Court proceedings will anyway get to the truth because you have to produce evidence in court. It has to be good, solid evidence. No doubt we will hear reports in due course. It will be quite nice actually to know exactly what went on because, as mentioned, in a previous article there is a lot of confusion surrounding this story.
Mr Hutson’s neighbor is still collecting money on a crowd funding website for Bart’s medical treatment which is not required. She has promised to donate the money to charity or return it to the donors. Let’s see if it happens.
Another crowd funding page has been started to pay for Mr Hobson’s legal fees. Why not use the former to pay for the latter?
My thanks to Elisa Black-Taylor for telling me about this development.
People please take care of your pets!
Oh, that’s awful that there are people who still think that they’re allowed to do something like that. I had a startup for defending animal rights, and I think I’m going to work on it.
So who should have to prove what to solve the case? This will be an interesting one to follow.