PETA urging outcry for animal cruelty charges in Alto case

A national animal rights group is asking its supporters to demand the Cherokee County Attorney file animal cruelty charges on an Alto juvenile who allegedly shot and killed a neighbor's cat more than three months ago.

File photo by Jessica Savage (enlarge photo) Neighbors Casey and Melissa Wood posted a no-trespassing sign recently at the entrance of their driveway following a recent problem of alleged trespassing by their 13-year-old son onto the Sharps' property.

Cherokee County Attorney Craig Caldwell declined to discuss the case, citing section 58.007 of the Texas Family Code. Caldwell said he interprets the law as forbidding him to confirm whether his office is planning to file charges against the juvenile or not.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) disagreed with Caldwell's interpretation, and requested that his office pursue charges.

"Mr. Caldwell's job is to uphold and enforce the laws, and he's refusing even to state whether or not charges will be brought against (the cat's) allegedly confessed killer," said Daphna Nachminovitch, director of PETA. "Repeat offenders are the rule — not the exception — among animal abusers. Failing to act now may only encourage further abuses and killings."

Grace Briseno Sharp said she was outside in her Alto yard Jan. 4 with her daughter's black cat, Tetsu, when she heard what sounded like a gun shot.

A few yards from where she was stood, her 13-year-old next door neighbor was holding a 12-gauge shot gun, she said. Tetsu's lifeless body lay beneath him on her lawn, she said.

Sharp said she hopes the awareness PETA is generating will help bring justice.

"Maybe all together we can make Caldwell do something about it," she said. "I want to go back home and have a normal life, but I'm scared."

Sharp said she and her family will not return to their home in Alto until the boy is punished.

The case, initially investigated by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, was named a cruelty to animals offense in January, according to the case disposition sheet. It was then turned over to the county's juvenile probation office and county attorney, the sheet stated.

"At this point in time I am limited on what I can say, but there has not been an arrest and there will not be an arrest," said John Burns, chief of the Cherokee County Juvenile Probation Department, in a February interview.

PETA researcher Dan Paden said the activist group rarely issues news releases asking the public to pressure a prosecuting attorney for justice, but he felt it was necessary in this case.

"All we're asking for is that (Caldwell) confirm or deny that charges have been or will be filed in the case," he said.

"The (Cherokee County) judicial system seems to be just failing this woman, her family and her dead cat. I just hope that this elected official will serve his constituents and not plead silent behind an irrelevant statute," Paden added.