# Did a neighbor kill an Ypsilanti Township family's cat?



## testmg80 (Jul 28, 2008)

by Jo Mathis | The Ann Arbor News 
Saturday October 25, 2008, 7:19 AM

Irene Sawyer still can't figure out why a neighbor may have shot and killed her cat in the middle of the day.

"When I first found out, I just didn't want to believe it," said Irene, 13, who heard the news when she returned from Lincoln Middle School on Monday. "It's really hard to understand why he did it. Ben was such a loving and sweet cat. He loved everybody - especially me."

Both the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department and the Humane Society of Huron Valley are investigating the case, which could lead to charges of careless use of a firearm and animal cruelty.

"This case is an absolute tragedy for the cat and for the family," said Tanya Hilgendorf, executive director of the Humane Society. "(Janie Sawyer) is devastated, and the way she talks about the importance of her cat to her daughter is particularly sad. We feel that devastation for that family and hope there will be some penalties."

Ben: The Sawyer family says their cat was shot this week.
Irene's mother, Janie, said the shooting has prompted one family in the Ypsilanti Township neighborhood to build a fence, and her son is now is afraid to go in his own yard. They live in Ford Lake Heights, a 278-home development along Huron River Drive.

"He was a great cat, and these people were our friends," she said. "It's just hard to believe it happened."

Sawyer, a nurse at the University of Michigan Hospital, said she was cleaning the basement Monday when a friend called and said, "You're not going to believe this, but I just saw a man shoot Ben."

Sawyer said the friend relayed that the man shot Ben with a rifle from a distance of about three feet, then returned with a garbage bag and placed Ben in it.

It happened a few feet from the backyard deck of another neighbor's yard - not on the property of the alleged shooter.

Sawyer said she rushed to the man's house, where he was backing his truck out of his driveway.

She said she shouted at him to stop, and after he shook his head, she threatened to call police.

"Why did you kill my cat?" she demanded.

"I didn't!" he said.

Sawyer told him a witness, who was cleaning a house while the owner was at work, described him right down to the bandana he was wearing.

Sawyer said she demanded her cat or she'd call police, but he insisted he didn't have the cat and drove away.

The family set up a makeshift grave outside their home.
Though he was an indoor cat, Ben occasionally slipped outside, as he had that morning. He was declawed, friendly and wasn't a nuisance, Janie Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the man told her husband: "I would never knowingly kill one of your animals."

The man could not be reached by The News Friday and is not being named because he has not been criminally charged.

His attorney, Mark Hugger of Ann Arbor, said he had no comment on the incident. Hugger added the man has no criminal record and is "a good family man."

Hilgendorf said the Humane Society investigates 400 reports of animal cruelty every year, and said cats are often not treated with the value and respect they deserve.

Sawyer said another neighbor reported her cat is missing, and she fears the pet may have met the same fate.
Reporter Jo Collins Mathis can be reached at 734-994-6849 or [email protected].

Ben was a seventh-birthday gift to Irene six years ago and has helped her with anxiety issues, Sawyer said.

The Sawyer family still has two dogs, a rabbit and another cat named Jerry.

But Irene misses Ben.

"I'm doing better," she said. "But we still want to know why he did it."

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Did a neighbor kill an Ypsilanti Township family's cat? - Ann Arbor News - The Ann Arbor News Online - Michigan Newspaper - MLive.com


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