Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church in Texas, has been arrested for allegedly throwing a neighbor’s cat, Moody, off a bridge after caging and abandoning the cat for days in his truck.
Bastrop Police Chief Michael Black says that Bartlett admitted that he caught the cat, named Moody, when he was trying to get rid of cats. He left Moody in the back of his truck for three days because he allegedly “forgot” it. He then brought it to the police who noted that the claimed “feral” cat had a name tag including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on its collar. The officer said Bartlett promised to return the cat to the owners, but it was found later that day on the bank of the Colorado River below a bridge. It turns out that the same animal control officer called to the scene happened to be the one who had assisted Bartlett earlier that day and recognized the cat.
Sarah Bell says that the crime has destroyed her daughter’s faith after learning the preacher allegedly committed the crime. When Bell told her that Moody was in heaven now, her daughter responded “I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.”
Bartlett faces a charge of animal cruelty which could result in a $4,000 fine and a year’s imprisonment.
Source: KVUE as first seen on Reddit
Ing Law
1, January 27, 2012 at 3:31 pm
I wonder how much cat bring at Korean market? I don’t suppose this was a free range cat. Some cat taste better than dog.
Reminds me of a story I heard from an old friend many years ago. His trucking buddy had a weekly run to NYC, delivering furniture at various points throughout the city. After many years he delivered to a new area of the city, and as usual, he would find a nearby cafe or restaurant to grab a meal while he was being unloaded. He saw a cafe and went in and to his surprise there was “fried rabbit” on the menu. After telling the waitress he hadn’t had rabbit since he was a kid and used to trap them, and she telling him it must be good cause we sell a lot of it, he ordered some, and found it to be very tasty. He repeated this same run,delivery location and meal of “tasty rabbit” for about a year. After leaving the cafe and his meal of rabbit one day; he realized he needed to take a piss, so he just walked down the alley behind the cafe,leaned on the wall, and let it fly. Noticeing a half covered 55 gallon barrel, he peeped inside to find it half full of cat heads. No more rabbit for him…. I wonder if they also serve “cat-head” biscuits?
Michelle,
Did not it taste just like rabbit? Rabbit is rare here. You are one of the lucky ones.
BLEHmarfengargermarrrhPHTTTTTTTT-PHTTTTTTTT-PHTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!
sufferingsuccatash,
A little yellow birdy told me recently that they had donated money to Gingrich and Santorum after taking a new job working for the Koch Brothers. I’m not sure, doc. Are you safe?
There’s been a rash of right wing hate crimes against cats. Is this an ideological thing or copycat crimes? Am I safe.
Suffering succotash.
Cats can trespass. Therefore they are fair game.
What is happening here?
i didn’t see anything in the article giving bartlett’s age but looking at the picture he does have white/greying hair so he’s not that young.
bet it’s not his first.
Between the preacher killing a cat, a cat accused of murder and a
liberal georgia politicians cat being murdered I’m honestly starting
to suspect that were in the midst of a christian culture war against
cats.
It was the wrong thing to do,even if he wasn’t a so-called preacher. The fact that the animal had an I.D. collar was enough to get the man arrested and fined. If it were a feral animal he should have shot it or chopped it’s head off so the thing wouldn’t suffer. I wonder; why in the heck he just didn’t let animal conrol handle it to begin with? Oh yea, I forgot he had to vent.
Tsk, tsk … obviously this man of God was tying to recreate this miracle from Luke:
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
~Luke 4:28-30
Note to the pious: Need to re-evaluate the miraculous experiment now.
Woodsman, um, how apropos a nom de plume.
I wonder how much cat bring at Korean market? I don’t suppose this was a free range cat. Some cat taste better than dog.
The person that needs to be fined and convicted of animal-neglect, animal-abandonment, animal-abuse, and animal-endangerment is the Bell family. They clearly didn’t care about the well being of their cat nor their own child’s feelings. What difference does it make if that cat got ran over by a car, lapped up some anti-freeze in someone’s garage, ate rat-poison someone put under their porch, or it was thrown off a bridge?
THE BELL FAMILY IS AT FAULT FOR THE DEATH OF THAT CAT, NO MATTER HOW IT DIED.
People who care about their animals keep them safe from all harm. They don’t let them roam around to die from lapping up anti-freeze in someone’s garage or risk a neighbor destroying that animal. In rural areas it is not only legal, but it is demanded by law, that any dog roaming free that’s causing trouble must be shot on sight. You can tell who cares about their pets in the country — their pets are still alive.
This Bell family plays a nice self-victimization game to manipulate all of you, and you ALL stupidly fall for it. Just like any cat-owner that lets their cat roam free and it dies by any means. They ALWAYS blame everyone else but themselves. If they let their child play in the freeway they’d be blaming the cars for their child’s death. Self-victimizing, manipulative, criminally-irresponsible hypocrites, one and all.
This so-called man of God needs to spend the full one year in prison and pay the full fine. In my opinion, both the fine and the imprisonment time are both insufficient to teach this idiot a lesson.
More evidence against the common conviction that religion makes you good. The surprising (to many) fact is that religiosity is not at all a significant predictor of moral character.
Ca(s)t your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
Ecclesiastes 11:1
And so the story comes true….
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? “Or cats from the water?”
Matthew 7:16
This jerk in the photo has to leave town. The dogs and cats will get even.
The kids in the neighborhood must have bags of cat poop and matches. Light the bag on the doorstep and ring the bell. Put poop in his pulpit.
Maybe the cat was trying to frame him for murder?
Or maybe this is just another example of a sociopath in sheep’s clothing.
And what jimm and Dredd said.
Atheists will find this sickening.
What is with these sickos anyway?