SOUTH CAROLINA – Two 19-year-olds were arrested on Thursday in connection with a stray cat they shot with BB guns, according to the police of Lancaster.
Grant Bodison and Joshua Kiser shot the cat back on Sept. 10 during a cookout at a home on John Everall Road, police stated.
Police were told that the cat had become a “nuisance” because it was rummaging through garbage at the home.
When the cat came around again, the residents of the home, some of whom are University of South Carolina-Lancaster students, were having a cookout and Bodison shot it with a BB pistol, police say.
Kiser also shot the cat, but did not kill it, police stated.
“Another person at the residence saw the cat was injured and apparently suffering and dispatched the cat by hand. The cat was then buried on the property,” police stated.
The cat’s body was later recovered and taken to a vet, where it was X-rayed. Images showed two BBs in the cat’s body.
The University of South Carolina-Lancaster conducted its own investigation because some of the residents of the home are their own students, police stated.
Bodison and Kiser were charged Thursday morning with the ill treatment of an animal.
“This was a senseless and unfortunate event,” stated Sheriff Barry Faile. “I hope these young men learn something from the negative consequences that have and will result from this incident.”
Anyone who may have additional information is asked to call the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office at 803-283-3388 or Crime Stoppers at 888-274-6372.
