MICHIGAN – A mother calico cat and all of her five kittens police say were thrown into a street by their owner are recovering at Bay County Animal Control.
The mother cat, who is estimated to be about 2 years old, was relaxing at the shelter with her five kittens mewling about her on the afternoon of Monday, July 25. The cats were transferred to the facility from Bay Animal Hospital, 637 W. Center Road in Hampton Township, where they were each evaluated for injuries.
Luckily, none of the cats were injured when their owner, whose name is Lacey L. Williams, allegedly threw them into a street in a drunken rage the night of Wednesday, July 20, according to Bay County Prosecutor Kurt C. Asbury. Four of the kittens and their mother ended up being recovered by police at the scene and turned over to an Animal Control officer. A fifth kitten was taken in and bottle-fed by a kind neighborhood resident before being surrendered to Animal Control.
The kittens will be staying with their mother for about 8 more weeks, shelter staff states. On top of that, unfortunately, they cannot be adopted out as Williams needs to relinquish her ownership of them for that to happen, staff added.
The staff is urging people not to contact them with inquiries on adopting the kittens or their mother.
Police at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, responded to 211 N. Madison Ave. for a call of Williams as she was trying to kill kittens by throwing them in the street. The person responsible for calling 911 also said Williams had smashed out the windows of two vehicles, court records show.
Upon their arrival, officers saw Williams pacing around in her front yard, yelling and screaming at a man across the street. Williams appeared to be highly intoxicated and agitated and was ranting in a way that made her difficult to understand, police mentioned in their reports, contained in court files.
“I threw some little kittens out,” Williams admitted to police, according to court records. “I gave them their litter. I can’t afford them. Do you want to pay for them?”
Williams went on to add that she can do what she wants at her own home.
As police spoke with Williams, a witness pointed to a cardboard box across the street. An officer approached the box and found it contained four kittens whose eyes weren’t even opened yet. Nearby children then directed the officer to the mother of the kitten, court records show.
“I took the cardboard box of kittens back across the street and put it near the mother cat,” the officer entered in his report. “I eventually pulled the mother cat out of the bushes and placed it in the box with the kittens.”
Police arrested Williams right at the scene. She has been charged with single counts of cruelty to four to 10 animals and disorderly conduct in public. The former is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine, while the latter charge is a 90-day misdemeanor.
Williams has at least five felony and six misdemeanor convictions which date back to 1999. Her prior convictions increase the maximum potential penalty on the animal cruelty charge to a total of 15 years in prison.
She is now free on a $20,000 cash-surety bond. As a condition of her bond, she is not to have any animals at all in her care.
Williams is scheduled to appear for a preliminary examination at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3.
