Man charged after shooting and killing neighbor’s cat that he says “hissed” at his puppy

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) - A man has been charged with felony cruelty to animals after deputies say he shot and killed a neighbor’s family pet.

“I was astounded. I had no…I was just shocked, really,” said the cat’s owner Cale Alligood. “I confronted the guy, the man that shot the cat still had the rifle, I said, well, what did you do? He never answered me, he said your cat was bothering my dog.”

According to the report at the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to investigate a disturbance at a home on Blue Heron Drive on Sunday afternoon.

Investigators say Jonathan Alexander Humphries, 26, had shot and killed a cat named Kenny that belonged to one of his neighbors. Humphries then allegedly tried to put the cat’s body in a fire pit, and hid the collar.

Humphries said that he was walking his puppy in the neighborhood when he encountered the cat. He said the cat hissed at his puppy. Humphries said he threw a rock at the cat, but the cat didn’t run away.

Humphries then went to his truck and got his gun. Investigators say Humphries shot the cat from a distance of about 43 feet, then walked up to the cat and shot it again.

He told investigators that the second shot was so the cat “wouldn’t suffer.”

Humphries told deputies that he thought the cat was a stray, but later said he couldn’t remember where he had hidden the cat’s collar.

After he shot the cat the second time, he tried to put it in a fire pit in his yard. A neighbor stopped him from doing that, according to the report.

Humphries was charged with cruelty to animals and released on a written promise to appear in court.

“My 10-year-old daughter, it was pretty much her cat, that was her pet, that was the hardest,” Alligood added.

Despite what happened, Alligood said that both of children said that they needed to pray for Humphries. “Yes, I was very distraught. Self-control was a hard thing for me at the moment, both of my kids mentioned, my son told him his desire to pray for him. My daughter, she said ‘Daddy he’s an evil man, we need to pray for that man.’”

WBTV reached out Humphries through social media to ask if he wanted to comment on the story or the circumstances. He replied “Inaccurate sources apparently, and WBTV doesn’t have spell check?”

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