This is an excerpt from the local paper here in Salt Lake, the Deseret News:
KEARNS, Utah -- A man investigators believe has been collecting free kittens through newspaper classifieds for the purpose of torturing them is being investigated by Salt Lake County Animal Services.
The man was charged with two counts of animal abuse and one count of abandonment, all misdemeanors, in June. He is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges Oct. 17. Now, investigators are looking at other possible abuse cases. Another injured kitten was brought to their attention just last week.
The purpose of the abuse appears to be to keep in contact with a former girlfriend, Animal Services spokeswoman Temma Martin said.
Investigators believe the man has adopted a total of seven or eight kittens over the past few months. Nearly all of them have suffered some type of "accident." After each incident, the man called the former girlfriend so she would come over and help with the injured animal.
Go to http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650196224,00.html if you are interested in reading the rest of the story.
After reading this story, I think I had the same question as most: who does that? Luckily, I was able to obtain an exclusive interview with the man behind the kitten killings. He, understandably, prefers to remain anonymous and asked to be called Sabre.
The following is the unedited transcript of our exclusive interview:
Scott: So Sabre, not to ignore the 1000-pound gorilla, but before we get into that whole cat-torturing thing, I’d like to get to know the man behind the kittens.
Sabre: I love kittens
Scott: Right, but first lets talk about who you are and what brought you to where you are today.
Sabre: Kearns?
Scott: Yeah Kearns…but not just where you are right now physically but also mentally and emotionally.
Sabre: Oh sure, emotions and whatnot.
Scott: Ok, to start things off, I wanted to ask you if got beat up a lot in school?
Sabre: No… I mean, by a lot do you mean every day?
Scott: Once a week.
Sabre: Oh, yes, then definitely a lot.
Scott: And would you say that you had a lot of girlfriends while you were growing up?
Sabre: Again, I’m not sure what you mean by the term a lot.
Scott: More than 10.
Sabre: No
Scott: More than 5?
Sabre: No.
Scott: Any?
Sabre: No.
Scott: So would it be fair to say that you were a little bit “different” when you were a kid…not part of the crowd most would term “normal?”
Sabre: No, I actually think I was a pretty normal kid doing the same things all other little kids did. I would ride my bike, I would go swimming, I loved to watch people and to follow them. I would collect things…cards, rocks, snakes, weapons, pictures of people that I took when they weren’t looking. I spent a lot of time with my animals.
Scott: Did you have any friends besides the animals?
Sabre: That’s an interesting question. It reminds me of a story. One time I did have this friend named Brian who asked me to his birthday party and then after that I used to follow him around school and then home from school. Sometimes he would know I was there and sometimes not, but most of the times not…you know, like hide-and-seek only he didn’t know we were playing. A few times he caught me and would pretend to get all scared.
Scott: And did he want to be your friend after that?
Sabre: I wanted him to be. I would call him a lot and send him things that I had found…dead
things like fish and birds and stuff and tell him that those things died because he wouldn’t be my friend. I guess it was a little strange, but you know how kids imaginations can be.
Scott: I think that gives us a pretty good background. Now lets get to the topic at hand. You are being accused of abusing cats in order to maintain contact with an ex-girlfriend. I think the first question on everyone’s minds is this: What were you thinking?
Sabre: It’s a complicated situation.
Scott: Start with the girlfriend.
Sabre: Well, we met online. My screen name is Calico7 and hers was Catlover83 so I knew pretty much right away that we would hit it off. At first the relationship was strictly web-based. We would tell each other cat jokes.
Scott: Tell me a cat joke.
Sabre: Ok…. lets see…what is a cat’s favorite color?
Scott: I give.
Sabre: Purrrrrrple!
Scott: That’s good. So you would tell each other jokes…
Sabre: Yeah, we would tell jokes and we would tell each other funny stories about our cats and the crazy things that they had done that day. Like I had this cat named Tabby that would sit and stare at me every morning when I got dressed. I thought that was really funny so I would tell her about it. Then she would tell me about how one of her cats hadn’t moved for three straight days and she thought it was dead but then one day it got up to go to the bathroom.
Scott: Did you guys ever exchange pictures?
Sabre: Sure. We both love picture where cats are seen doing adult things like reading or brushing their teeth or sleeping. We would exchange those all of the time.
Scott: And how did you finally meet?
Sabre: This is really funny. I actually responded to an ad she had put in the paper for a beautiful white Persian she was selling. I showed up to her house and we got to talking and then in walks Pepper, her black Manx, and I recognized him from the pictures. I played it really cool and just leaned over and kissed her.
Scott: Kissed her?
Sabre: Yeah! At first she totally freaked out and started yelling and trying to call the police. I kept trying to tell her who I was but she couldn’t hear over her screaming so finally I just had to show her the picture of the calico I have tattooed on my arm. She immediately realized who I was and the rest…well the rest as they say is history.
Scott: Well, not exactly. How did you go from there to where you are today?
Sabre: It’s a long story that I really don’t want to get into.
Scott: Just give us the short version.
Sabre: The long and short of it is that I loved her and she wasn’t interested in loving anything except her cats.
Scott: Is that why you did what you did?
Sabre: I’m sure it’s a part of it.
Scott: What exactly did you do?
Sabre: Well, put plainly, I killed some cats and hurt some other cats.
Scott: Tell us more about that.
Sabre: About hurting the cats?
Scott: About the whole situation…. about what led to your decision to hurt the cats.
Sabre: Well, it’s pretty simple. There are two things that we both believed are the most beautiful things in the world. The first is the love we shared and the second is kittens. When she destroyed the first, I decided to destroy the second.
Scott: And you did this because…
Sabre: I did this because it was the perfect solution. It was the only way to resurrect that beauty. I sat there after we broke up and I would reread our chats and look back over all of the pictures…the two kittens in the boots, the kitten with sunglasses on, the kitten pretending to drink beer…it was all just too much and at the same time too little. It felt out of balance, like when you walk around with just one sock on. The beauty wasn’t complete without her there.
Scott: And so to bring her there you hurt the cats.
Sabre: Yes. I am sorry that I had to do it but it was the only way. I was hurting them in order to help them. You’ve heard of how broken bones, after they have healed, are stronger than before? Same idea.
Scott: How would you hurt the cats?
Sabre: Usually I would just drop them from high places…my apartment balcony, the top of my building…I dropped one while I was driving. You know that whole thing they say about cats always landing on their feet?
Scott: Yeah.
Sabre: Well it’s true…the only thing they forget to say is that sometimes those feet break when they land extra hard. That’s one thing that I really think they need to mention when they say that.
Scott: So did it work? I mean did luring her over to your house help restore that beauty?
Sabre: You know, for a short time it did. But after like the 12th kitten she started to get suspicious, started asking a bunch or questions. There are only so many excuses you can make…the cat fell down the stairs, the cat got it’s paw stuck in the door, the cat accidentally got rolled up in a carpet roll. She started to see through my stories. Then one time she caught me putting a cat’s tail down the garbage disposal and she kind of freaked out. She called the cops, filed a protective order, stopped returning my calls, pressed charges. And that is where we are now.
Scott: Crazy story.
Sabre: I guess.
Scott: Any regrets.
Sabre: Lost love.
Scott: Any final words?
Sabre: How do cats end a fight?
Scott: Not sure.
Sabre: They hiss and make up.
