A man in Kern County has been arrested on suspicion of killing and eating cats, according to media reports.

Jason Louis Wilmert, 35, was arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals and using animals commonly kept as pets as food, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Department's inmate search directory. He also was booked on suspicion of unauthorized burning and resisting a peace officer.

Wilmert, who lives in Oildale north of Bakersfield in the Central Valley, was "being prosecuted for using cats as a food source," the Bakersfield Californian quoted Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Yraceburn as saying.

A neighbor told KBAK-TV that she heard the noise of a cat shrieking coming from Wilmert's home.