"I feel he should have made a better judgment – especially being an officer, " said Pratt of the off-duty highway patrol trooper who was trying to get Tigger the cat out of the engine compartment of his personal truck. Clawson and Pratt said the trooper lives in their neighborhood.
Tigger and several of the couple's other cats got out of the house over the weekend while the couple was in Southern Utah.
The couple's neighbor went around the Tooele neighborhood looking for the cats and found Tigger in a blue plastic box at the neighbor's house. The skin on his paws was burned off and there were burn marks around his mouth.
According to Officer Tanya Turnbow with Tooele Police, the off-duty trooper said Tigger attacked his own pet and was acting aggressively toward his family. He jumped into the trooper's personal truck began chewing on the wires.
When he wouldn't come out, the off-duty trooper decided he would start the engine and drive toward a nearby filed hoping to get the cat out of the truck. Somewhere in that ride, the cat was burned on one of the truck's pipes.
The officer said he thought the cat was feral, like many in the area, and he expected it to run off immediately.
The investigation continues and no decision has been made as to whether the off-duty trooper will be cited or charged. The Highway Patrol said Tooele Police will handle the investigation as the incident happened outside the trooper's work hours.
"Whether he is law enforcement or any other individual it doesn't matter. That was animal cruelty," said Clawson who considers Tigger her child after he's lived with her for eleven years. She said his animal hospital bill was up to $2,000 after two days.
Dr. Ann Schlipf at Utah Veterinary Center in Midvale said the cat suffered second degree burns on its paws but will recover.
Clawson has a GoFundMe account set up hoping to get donations to pay for Tigger's hospital bills. The account is called "Tigger's Medical Bills"
(KUTV - Feb 17, 2015)
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