Animal Abuse Case in Twin Falls a Lie

UPDATE: The Twin Falls Police Department has completed its investigation into an alleged incident involving animal cruelty on Nov. 7, where a witness said he saw several male juveniles repeatedly kicking a cat in the area of Cheney Drive in Twin Falls.

On Wednesday, Nov. 13, the witness met with detectives and told them that he had fabricated the story about the injured cat. He later said that it was his cat and he accidentally injured the cat while closing his apartment door. Detectives verified with the veterinarian that the injury was not indicative of being kicked repeatedly, but that is was more likely a single strike to the hind leg that caused a fracture.

According to the witness original story, he was in the area of 252 Cheney Drive West, near the Walmart Supercenter, when he observed four to five male juveniles kicking something on the ground. He said that when he approached the juveniles, they fled on foot and he saw a severely injured adult male cat laying on the ground.

The witness took the cat to the Twin Falls Animal Shelter, which held the cat for observation before taking it to the Sawtooth Veterinary Hospital in Jerome. The witness did not notify police about the incident.

The Twin Falls Police Department opened an animal cruelty investigation into the incident after receiving calls from local media and animal shelter on Nov. 8. Detectives spoke with officials from the animal shelter and attempted to contact the witness to gather more information, however, the witness said he was unavailable until the following week.

The cat is recovering from its injury. Police are not seeking charges against the male individual.

The Twin Falls Police Department would like to emphasize to the community that any reports of animal cruelty should immediately be reported to the Twin Falls Police Department. In recent cases, individuals have reported suspicious incidents to the animal shelter or on social media sites – these methods delay and detract from an investigations, where time is critical to prosecuting cases involving animal cruelty.