Man suspected of abusing cat found dead

Billings Gazette ^ | February 4, 2010 | Tristan Scott

[myknowledge]

MISSOULA — A Missoula man is dead after police attempted to serve an arrest warrant at a home where a kitten was found severely abused earlier this week.

Officers arrived to serve an arrest warrant at 2419 38th St., shortly after 1 p.m. today, but the man inside would not come to the door.

The warrant was for aggravated animal cruelty charges related to the case of the abused 4-month-old kitten found at the home Sunday night after neighbors reported screams coming from the residence.

A Missoula police officer talked to the man inside the home on the telephone before approaching the house this afternoon, but the man would not come to the door.

[myknowledge]

Gary Bassett, Mercy's owner, must have felt so badly ashamed for abusing this poor 4 month old kitten and then took his own life.

[Tax-chick]

Dangling modifiers doing bad things to catz, or something.

[pandoraou812]

He was most likely scared of prison & mentally ill.

[pillut48]

The animal was later euthanized.

*sorrow* :*(

I believe to the depths of my heart that there is a special place in hell for people who hurt animals this way. :*(

I would bet the bank that somewhere there's a human body buried on that property...

[DJ MacWoW]

I think there were other issues there. He sounded very unstable.

[Yossarian]

What a sad soul. Animal abuse - pet abuse, especially - is a sign that the person has some deep, deep issues going on.

It's a shame that this guy couldn't manage to man up, take the consequences, get help for his problems, and lead a life that God would be proud of.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

World’s closed.

Enjoy your hell.

[DCPatriot]

[LostInBayport]

These little animals are trusting, helpless and friendly. To then abuse them as described in the articles on this case....I can’t describe it as anything but true evil. Mental illness, hard luck, bad childhood...blah blah blah. This comes from the darkest, most vile place and there is no excuse for it.

[the invisib1e hand]

He was most likely scared of prison & mentally ill.

Is this modifier dangling, too?

[ConservativeMind]

I’m sorry, but humans, especially ones not found criminally liable for anything, are worth more to God than any animal.

[Ronin]

GOOD!!!

I hope he burns in Hell!!!

[Tax-chick]

Compound predicate adjectives ... but the pronoun’s antecedent is unclear.

For the record, I think it’s terrible that the cat was abused, and that the man killed himself.

[the invisib1e hand]

For the record, I think it’s terrible that the cat was abused, and that the man killed himself.

That's beside the point.

[Dumpster Baby]

Not everyone’s qualified to be a human. It takes not only the accident of birth but also some effort.

[the invisib1e hand]

maybe we oughts to ping JR to have his techs build some kind of “dangling modifier” checks into the HTML?

[the invisib1e hand]

this post, your frname, and the tagline have pretty much redlined my “deep thoughts” meter.

[huldah1776]

Reasons are not always excuses. I tried to explain that to my kid the other day. A really sweet girl tried to explain why a friend was “cutting” herself and he ended contact with her because he said she was defending the girl. I told him that might not have been the case. I can tell you why we are all deserving of hell, but that doesn’t excuse our actually being guilty of sin. We all belong in hell, and there is an individual reason for each of us. The cruelty to the animal is a symptom, and the diagnosis is not a reason for forgiveness.

[valkyry1]

A sad tragedy all around.

[myknowledge]

And Gary Bassett will have no one else but himself to blame.

To him, abusing Mercy the cat was venting out the anger.