Cats and roosters are seen at an abandoned home in Acampo on Feb. 16. Fifteen cats were recently found killed at the home. (Courtesy photo)

Acampo boy accused of killing cats

15 cats found dead at abandoned home; 37 living felines rescued

Fifteen cats were brutally killed at a vacant home in Acampo late last week, and a rescue group on Monday offered a $1,000 reward for more information on the case.

A total of 37 living cats are now being cared for in foster homes while the Abandoned Cat Team of Stockton vaccinates, spays and neuters them before trying to find homes.

San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputies cited a 16-year-old boy for animal cruelty after he allegedly admitted to his father that he killed the cats with a pellet gun. He was cited for cruelty to an animal and released to his father, said Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia.

ACT officials don't think a pellet gun was the only weapon, and they wouldn't be surprised if the boy wasn't the only suspect.

Garcia, however, did not know if investigators had any other suspects.

The animals, along with countless chickens and roosters, were all found in mid-February at a Watkinson Road home that went into foreclosure. Abandoned animals have become yet another fallout in the housing crisis, but Rose Hilliard, vice president of ACT, is more concerned about the perpetrators.

"Kids that are capable of doing something like that, on that kind of scale, are scary. There's something going on in their mind that allows them to be that pathological," said Hilliard, a trained veterinary technician who has worked at local animal shelters for 10 years.

Hilliard pointed to the Columbine High School shooters, who had killed animals before they went on a lethal rampage through their school.

A $1,000 reward is being offered for information related to the death of 15 cats at a foreclosed house in the 24300 block of Watkinson Road in Acampo. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

"It's a total disregard for life, for the suffering of a being," Hilliard said. "For that reason, it's important that these people be caught, that they get counseling."

Children in the Acampo area attend Lodi High School, so Hilliard plans to contact school officials. She's placed fliers in the Acampo area and wants the public to know about the reward, since youths often brag to one another.

The ranch-style home on five acres, about six miles east of Highway 99 near Jahant Road, went into foreclosure and is now owned by a mortgage company.

Abandoned Cat Team was called Feb. 15 and told that 12 felines and 25 birds had been left at the home, Hilliard said. So several ACT members went to visit the next day, where they counted about 40 cats and 50 birds.

It costs about $100 per animal to spay or neuter, vaccinate and test animals for diseases, Hilliard said, and the organization couldn't afford to handle such a large amount of animals at once. They contacted the mortgage company, which finally agreed March 3 to pay the money, and the check arrived Friday.

In the meantime, a contractor had volunteered to put food out for the cats until volunteers and the money could be coordinated.

ACT members had planned to get the animals Sunday, but on Friday they learned that cats had been killed and left on the property. Three volunteers immediately headed for Acampo, where they found cats' bodies scattered outside. Hilliard described it as a "battle scene."

It was hard enough for the animal lovers to see bloody, dead cats, but some of them were the same animals that had greeted the ACT members on the February visit. They had purred and rubbed around legs, and would be easy to adopt out, Hilliard said.

One small brown kitty, only about 5 months old, particularly struck Hilliard. When she arrived Friday, that friendly cat was among those dead — something that still makes Hilliard's voice break.

"I should have taken it (in February)," she said. "That will haunt me until I die."

Though Sheriff's deputies cited the teenager — whose name was not released by authorities because of his age — for animal cruelty and the report said a pellet gun was used, Hilliard thinks that wasn't the only weapon.

The ACT members found a 2-by-4 piece of wood with blood spatters on it near a cat's body, and a long iron spike in a pool of blood, Hilliard said. A large fishing-type net was also found near two cats' bodies, and it had been broken in half.

One very young cat was killed inside the home, which had apparently been burglarized, Hilliard said. A worker who found the body told her blood was spattered all over the room.

Four of the cats were taken to a Lodi veterinary hospital for autopsies, which Hilliard hopes will help prosecute those responsible. Results are still pending, but two had BB wounds — though Hilliard believes those injuries were not fatal.

The surviving cats are now in foster homes as ACT members scramble to get the cats cared for, since they found even more animals than had been expected. They will soon be available for adoption.

As for the cats' original owners, Hilliard has a name, which she did not disclose. Animal abandonment is punishable by a misdemeanor, and was not known Monday if the former owner could be charged.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.