By Jennifer Dobner and David Schwartz
SALT LAKE CITY/PHOENIX, July 12 (Reuters) - Authorities in
northern Arizona have opened an animal cruelty investigation
after a kitten was found buried alive in concrete in a bizarre
incident that may stem from a conflict between members and
former members of a polygamous Mormon sect.
Andrew Chatwin, a former member of the sect, said he found
the kitten buried up to its chest in concrete inside a steel
support post for a horse shelter he was building in Colorado
City, one of two polygamist-dominated towns on the Arizona-Utah
border, in late May. The kitten later died.
On Wednesday the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, based in
Kingman, Arizona, announced it has launched its own
investigation of the case.
Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are home to
members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect led by
now-imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, convicted or raping two
underage girls in a polygamist marriage.
The twin towns made headlines last month when the U.S.
Justice Department sued them, alleging that the police agency
serving them had sometimes deployed deputies to confront sect
members about their disobedience to sect rules or to tell them
to report to the sect leadership.
Deputies also failed to arrest sect members who committed
crimes against non-members such as destroying their crops or
trespassing, the suit added. An attorney representing the church
denied the allegations.
People who have left the church say dead animals have been
tossed on their property in the past in an attempt to intimidate
them.
Both Chatwin and his friend, Issac Wyler, are former church
members and have worked with authorities to expose alleged
criminal and civil injustices within the community, and have
previously complained of retaliation.
Chatwin, who left the church after disagreements with Jeffs
about a dozen years ago, said he set the 7-foot-high, 8-inch
round pole on the afternoon of May 30 and found the kitten the
next morning set in concrete up to its chest.
"There's no way that cat could have climbed up there on it's
own," said Chatwin. "It's definitely in my opinion a hate
message or a death message against Issac, because he's been
outspoken."
YOUTUBE VIDEO
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) offered
on Thursday a $2,500 reward for the arrest and conviction of
those responsible in the case.
The incident came to light earlier this month after a video
surfaced on YouTube of the effort to free the animal. It shows a
small white kitten trapped up to its chest in hardening concrete
inside the pipe.
The cat, with its head thrown back and one leg and paw free,
mews incessantly. It was freed after six hours but died days
later in a Utah animal rescue center.
Over the past seven years, both Chatwin and Wyler have
complained publicly of harassment by FLDS members, which has
increased scrutiny of the church and the twin border towns,
which have more than 8,800 residents, most of them sect members.
A Salt Lake City-based attorney who represents the FLDS on
Thursday denied any church connection to the incident and said
Chatwin's characterization of the incident underscores the
bitter discord that exists between current and former members.
"We know that there is a dead cat and a lot of questions,
but that's all there is. Nobody knows who did it, or if it was
even done intentionally," attorney Rod Parker said.
"To suggest that the FLDS had anything to do with it is a
gross example of how things involving that community are
distorted beyond reason," he added.
Chatwin said the May 31 incident was not an isolated event
and that dead animals have been found tossed in Wyler's yard or
on his front porch in recent years.
In most instances, Chatwin said, the acts occurred after he
or Wyler had some disagreement with FLDS member, usually related
to the enforcement of a Utah court order that governs property
use in the towns.
Those incidents, as well as the trapped kitten, were all
reported to the town marshal's office, Chatwin said. "It's
uncalled for to use little animals to send a message like this,"
Chatwin said.
Colorado City police conducted an investigation, but Parker
said it has stalled due to a lack of evidence.
Jeffs was convicted in Texas last year of raping two
underage girls he wed in "spiritual marriages," and is now is
serving a term of life plus 20 years in prison.
(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Philip Barbara)
Mormon Fundamentalists Bury Kitten In Concrete...Alive.
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