By Jennifer Dobner and David Schwartz

SALT LAKE CITY/PHOENIX, July 12 (Reuters) - Authorities in

northern Arizona have opened an animal cruelty investigation

after a kitten was found buried alive in concrete in a bizarre

incident that may stem from a conflict between members and

former members of a polygamous Mormon sect.

Andrew Chatwin, a former member of the sect, said he found

the kitten buried up to its chest in concrete inside a steel

support post for a horse shelter he was building in Colorado

City, one of two polygamist-dominated towns on the Arizona-Utah

border, in late May. The kitten later died.

On Wednesday the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, based in

Kingman, Arizona, announced it has launched its own

investigation of the case.

Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are home to

members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect led by

now-imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, convicted or raping two

underage girls in a polygamist marriage.

The twin towns made headlines last month when the U.S.

Justice Department sued them, alleging that the police agency

serving them had sometimes deployed deputies to confront sect

members about their disobedience to sect rules or to tell them

to report to the sect leadership.

Deputies also failed to arrest sect members who committed

crimes against non-members such as destroying their crops or

trespassing, the suit added. An attorney representing the church

denied the allegations.

People who have left the church say dead animals have been

tossed on their property in the past in an attempt to intimidate

them.

Both Chatwin and his friend, Issac Wyler, are former church

members and have worked with authorities to expose alleged

criminal and civil injustices within the community, and have

previously complained of retaliation.

Chatwin, who left the church after disagreements with Jeffs

about a dozen years ago, said he set the 7-foot-high, 8-inch

round pole on the afternoon of May 30 and found the kitten the

next morning set in concrete up to its chest.

"There's no way that cat could have climbed up there on it's

own," said Chatwin. "It's definitely in my opinion a hate

message or a death message against Issac, because he's been

outspoken."

YOUTUBE VIDEO

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) offered

on Thursday a $2,500 reward for the arrest and conviction of

those responsible in the case.

The incident came to light earlier this month after a video

surfaced on YouTube of the effort to free the animal. It shows a

small white kitten trapped up to its chest in hardening concrete

inside the pipe.

The cat, with its head thrown back and one leg and paw free,

mews incessantly. It was freed after six hours but died days

later in a Utah animal rescue center.

Over the past seven years, both Chatwin and Wyler have

complained publicly of harassment by FLDS members, which has

increased scrutiny of the church and the twin border towns,

which have more than 8,800 residents, most of them sect members.

A Salt Lake City-based attorney who represents the FLDS on

Thursday denied any church connection to the incident and said

Chatwin's characterization of the incident underscores the

bitter discord that exists between current and former members.

"We know that there is a dead cat and a lot of questions,

but that's all there is. Nobody knows who did it, or if it was

even done intentionally," attorney Rod Parker said.

"To suggest that the FLDS had anything to do with it is a

gross example of how things involving that community are

distorted beyond reason," he added.

Chatwin said the May 31 incident was not an isolated event

and that dead animals have been found tossed in Wyler's yard or

on his front porch in recent years.

In most instances, Chatwin said, the acts occurred after he

or Wyler had some disagreement with FLDS member, usually related

to the enforcement of a Utah court order that governs property

use in the towns.

Those incidents, as well as the trapped kitten, were all

reported to the town marshal's office, Chatwin said. "It's

uncalled for to use little animals to send a message like this,"

Chatwin said.

Colorado City police conducted an investigation, but Parker

said it has stalled due to a lack of evidence.

Jeffs was convicted in Texas last year of raping two

underage girls he wed in "spiritual marriages," and is now is

serving a term of life plus 20 years in prison.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Philip Barbara)