RCMP are investigating what could be a shocking case of animal cruelty in a central Alberta community.
On Saturday, officers found a dead cat that had been suspended by its neck with wire and hung from a lamppost outside a store in Ponoka, Alta., about 130 kilometres south of Edmonton.
Const. James Lai said in an interview Sunday that a customer going into a Fields store noticed the grisly sight around 10 a.m. Saturday morning and alerted the store manager.
- Related: A photograph of the cat. A warning -- some viewers may find this image disturbing.
Lai says the dark brown female tabby cat was suspended over four metres in the air, hanging from a horizontal arm normally used to hang flower baskets in the summer.
The officer had to use a ladder to climb up the post and untangle the animal's body.
Police are still trying to determine whether the cat may have still been alive when its neck was wrapped several times with wire and then hung from the overhead bar.
"There was no other marks on the cat, nothing to indicate it was previously deceased before being put up there,'' Lai said.
The animal's body was stiff when he pulled it down from the lamppost, suggesting it had been there for some time, Lai said.
Police believe the cat may have been put there sometime between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
The sight of the dangling animal was disturbing to Lai, who is a dog owner, and to his partner, Const. Melanie Girard, who is also an animal lover.
"Personally it was upsetting, myself being a pet lover. I couldn't comprehend why someone would have done this,'' Lai said.
Investigators are working a few leads in the case, but Lai is hoping that tips from the public may help determine how the cat came to be there, and who may be responsible.
The incident is just the latest in a string of animal cruelty cases which have shocked and angered animal rights groups in Alberta in recent months.
Four teenagers are charged after police allege they broke into a home in Camrose, Alta., in December while the owners were away, and put a cat named Princess in a microwave, killing it.
Two of the youths have pleaded not guilty to charges including break and enter, unlawfully killing an animal and causing pain and suffering to an animal, and will go to trial June 4th.
Two other youths are expected to appear in court April 3rd.
In 2006, a dog named Daisy Duke was viciously beaten and dragged from the rear of a vehicle until it was near death. The animal was so badly injured, it had to be put down.
A teen who pleaded guilty animal cruelty in that case received a conditional sentence while Daniel Charles Haskett, 19, who also admitted to participating in the dog's torture, will be sentenced next month.
