Stephen Herzog

SHERZOG@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Residents of a Reeds Spring trailer park received letters in their mailboxes asking them to place bowls of antifreeze outside their homes to kill stray cats.

Kim Pillars, who lives in White Eagle Woods in Reeds Spring, said there are "dead cats everywhere" because someone has been putting out bowls of antifreeze, shooting strays and burning them. She and other residents produced an identical letter telling them the cat problem needed a solution or rents could go up for everyone.

A News-Leader photographer this Thursday afternoon saw several stray cats and a dead, burned cat on the property. A complaint has been made to the Stone County Sheriff's Office, and deputies visited the scene Thursday, as well as Humane Society representatives.

The trailer park's manager, Mark F. Rich, this afternoon told the News-Leader he did not send the note. He said there's been dispute in the trailer park between residents who want dozens of problematic feral cats gone and residents who feed the cats. He also said one specific resident has expressed anger at the cats and might have circulated the note but Rich declined to give that person's name.

Intentionally killing an animal in a manner not authorized by law, such as hunting, is class A misdemeanor, unless the death is caused as a result of torture or mutilation, in which case it's a class D felony.

The note, provided to the News-Leader and posted by Pillars on Craigslist, aggressively calls for residents to help get rid of the animals. It asks residents not to leave food outside their units because strays have become "a major problem." The note says the cats tear up insulation under homes and cause damage.

"Anyone found feeding stray cats will face immediate eviction," the note says. "Beginning the first of October we will begin an all out assault on all stray cats ... so keep your one pet in doors. All residents can help clean up the stray cat problem by leaving a bowl of antifreeze out to poison these ever increasing problem."

Manager Rich told the News-Leader he's been in Colorado for 2 ½ weeks and was reached by a reporter while on vacation. He said he wasn't aware of any letter or any issue with dead cats and called it "ridiculous" that a news story was being written about the note.

"We didn't put out any letter and we're not killing any cats," he said. Part of the park property is owned, according to county records, by Rich and part by White Eagle Woods, LLC, with Rich as the registered agent for that limited liability corporation.

While warning about possible higher rents, the note also calls the stray cats a potential health problem.

Rich complained to the News-Leader about damage the cats do to trailers and said it's difficult to catch them. He also complained that the county does not have effective animal control and said the Humane Society wants $40 per cat to remove the animals.

Some residents are worried for the cats.

Resident Pillars said she posted the note to seek help to round up stray cats and move them to safety.

A photographer on the scene saw Stone County Sheriff's Deputies and members of the Humane Society's Animal Cruelty Task Force. A society spokeswoman confirmed to the News-Leader early this evening that two investigators were at the scene and are working with the sheriff's department. She declined to elaborate.

Sheriff Doug Rader said his department did get a complaint and followed up.

He said two dead cats were discovered, but a deputy couldn't determine the cause of death or prove that someone had killed them. He told the News-Leader there's not much more his department can do.