Disturbing Incident.

Subject: Disturbing Incident.
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From: "Kalyahna"
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.health+behav, alt.cats, alt.pets.cats,
alt.med.veterinary, rec.pets.cats.misc, rec.pets.cats.rescue
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 23:00:47 -0500
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This is sort of a long story, so please bear with me.

The short version:
In mid August, at a Menard's store in Marshfield, Wisconsin (pop: 20,000), a
wounded kitten was bludgeoned to death by a store employee at the direction
of his manager, a man named Dave Hoak.

The police have done nothing except say that in future situations, the
ordinance officers should be called. The local news herald took a month to
publish anything at all about this horrible situation and didn't offer
anything better.

The long version:
"In mid August 2004, a store patron saw a bleeding cat lying in the parking
lot at Menards. This person reported to teh service desk that a cat was in
the parking lot, obviously injured. She asked that help be sought for the
frightened animal, and expressed her concern for it. The store manager was
contacted and directed two young male employees to take a lawn edger out to
the parking lot and beat the cat to death. The young men did what they were
told to do by their manager. This extremely violent act was witnessed by
other store patrons moving through the parking lot. One of these patrons
went to the same service desk to report what was happening to the cat and
was told that they were aware of what was going on outside.

A local veterinary office was called about the incident, as was the local
police department. A third person called the manager at Menards to question
him about the incident. The caller was told it was, "just like hunting,
sir." At this time, the manager is still employed by Menards."
-- This from the only eyewitness to come forward.

This is the news herald article that attempts to cover what happened. The
author's contact info is available at the bottom of the screen.
http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mn...33135965.shtml

My sister is the "friend" at Marshfield Veterinary Service. Her response to
his article follows. It is abridged slightly to keep to the topic at hand:
"Mr. Gneiser,

I am deeply disappointed in your article regarding the death of the kitten
in Menard's parking lot. I'm afraid that from the very beginning of your
article, there are obvious problems with this story.

First, you did not mention that this animal was a kitten and lead readers
to believe that it was an adult cat.

Second, you state repeatedly that this animal was "critically injured". I
would like to know who is qualified to make that judgment. Are the
employees at Menard's trained in veterinary medicine? After working over 5
years in the field of veterinary medicine, I have learned a few things about
injury and trauma. Shock can often set in and cause the animal to go into a
coma-like state. With treatment, shock can often be overcome, and depending
on the extent of other injuries, many animals can recover. I guess we will
never know the state of that animal because the employee took it upon
himself to make that call. The police can make no judgment on the extent of
the injury because no one in their department has even seen the animal, even
though they keep saying it was "critically injured". Perhaps you should seek
the opinion of a veterinarian to include in any future stories like this.

Third, you do not mention that what the eye witness, Mrs. Albers, saw varies
from the account given to the police by the Menard's employee. According to
her, the kitten was struck repeatedly and was flailing it's legs and tail
during the beating. I have a hard time believing this to be "mercy".

Finally, I find some of the comments made by Joe Stroik to be disturbing at
best. Whether the employee did or did not know about ordinance control is
beside the point. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for inappropriate
behavior. The question over whether the kitten was stray or not should have
nothing to do with how the animal was treated. Are not all the animals
found running at large considered stray until they are claimed by an owner?
The fact that no owner has come forward now, a month later, has nothing to
do with how that kitten was treated on that day, at that time. They were
not and could not have been certain that it was a stray at the time that it
was killed. Whether the kitten would have been euthanized after being
collected by ordinance control is an assumption - again - of the animal
being "critically injured", we have no proof of that being so.

I certainly hope that you will print a follow-up story correcting the false
impression you have left on the public that this was a minor issue being
questioned by a group of crazy animal lovers and that no real crime has been
committed. I also hope that you include the ridiculous and unprofessional
response by Ray at Menard's headquarters when my friend Gina Knetter
informed him of this act being committed."

Ray's response, by the way, was, "This is total bull."

Ray can be reached at or 1-800-menards.

The chief of police quoted in the article above was spoken to by the eye
witness and informed of many things of which he was unaware... due to the
ineptitude of the officer on the scene. The eye witness writes, "I did talk
with cheif Stroik today. We actually had a nice talk about it all. I
voiced my concerns about the fact that there didn't seem to be an official
report and that there were some misrepresentations in the newspaper article.
For one, the kitten was not beaten to death - it was pinned to the ground
with a lawn edger on its neck. My husband saw the final "push", I couldn't
see anymore because my eyes were so filled with tears! Cheif Stroik had me
email him my letter to the press and also describe in detail what I saw &
how officer Rice handled the situation. He was actually surprised at what I
had to say - Officer Rice never put my name in the report and also she
didn't file it right away either. I think that after talking with me & once
he reads all the facts I typed for him, he will have a different view on the
whole situation. I did ask him if he tried to get the surveillance tapes
for the parking lot (which I am sure Menards would have or DID have). He
said no, but he would look into it. cross your fingers!"

The local news has been informed of the incident, and it sounds as though
the local CBS affiliate will be running a story on it sometime this next
week. After that airs (if it does, let's hope so), there may be more public
outcry, but we can always use a few extra phone calls or e-mails to let
Menards know that such things are not acceptable and ARE in fact, a
violation of law (my sister has contacted the animal legal defense fund and
they've verified that it was illegal).

For those of you that have waded through all of this, thank you for your
time.

For those of you that call or write to express your anger and disgust, thank
you VERY much.

~K











You are a nut. Get help.

Subject: Disturbing Incident.
Path:
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From: "Kalyahna"
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.health+behav, alt.cats, alt.pets.cats,
alt.med.veterinary, rec.pets.cats.misc, rec.pets.cats.rescue
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 23:00:47 -0500
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
Message-ID:
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437
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Lines: 123
Xref: lobby rec.pets.cats.health+behav:334051 alt.cats:190467
alt.med.veterinary:130268 rec.pets.cats.misc:84260 rec.pets.cats.rescue:31498



This is sort of a long story, so please bear with me.

The short version:
In mid August, at a Menard's store in Marshfield, Wisconsin (pop: 20,000), a
wounded kitten was bludgeoned to death by a store employee at the direction
of his manager, a man named Dave Hoak.

The police have done nothing except say that in future situations, the
ordinance officers should be called. The local news herald took a month to
publish anything at all about this horrible situation and didn't offer
anything better.

The long version:
"In mid August 2004, a store patron saw a bleeding cat lying in the parking
lot at Menards. This person reported to teh service desk that a cat was in
the parking lot, obviously injured. She asked that help be sought for the
frightened animal, and expressed her concern for it. The store manager was
contacted and directed two young male employees to take a lawn edger out to
the parking lot and beat the cat to death. The young men did what they were
told to do by their manager. This extremely violent act was witnessed by
other store patrons moving through the parking lot. One of these patrons
went to the same service desk to report what was happening to the cat and
was told that they were aware of what was going on outside.

A local veterinary office was called about the incident, as was the local
police department. A third person called the manager at Menards to question
him about the incident. The caller was told it was, "just like hunting,
sir." At this time, the manager is still employed by Menards."
-- This from the only eyewitness to come forward.

This is the news herald article that attempts to cover what happened. The
author's contact info is available at the bottom of the screen.
http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mn...33135965.shtml

My sister is the "friend" at Marshfield Veterinary Service. Her response to
his article follows. It is abridged slightly to keep to the topic at hand:
"Mr. Gneiser,

I am deeply disappointed in your article regarding the death of the kitten
in Menard's parking lot. I'm afraid that from the very beginning of your
article, there are obvious problems with this story.

First, you did not mention that this animal was a kitten and lead readers
to believe that it was an adult cat.

Second, you state repeatedly that this animal was "critically injured". I
would like to know who is qualified to make that judgment. Are the
employees at Menard's trained in veterinary medicine? After working over 5
years in the field of veterinary medicine, I have learned a few things about
injury and trauma. Shock can often set in and cause the animal to go into a
coma-like state. With treatment, shock can often be overcome, and depending
on the extent of other injuries, many animals can recover. I guess we will
never know the state of that animal because the employee took it upon
himself to make that call. The police can make no judgment on the extent of
the injury because no one in their department has even seen the animal, even
though they keep saying it was "critically injured". Perhaps you should seek
the opinion of a veterinarian to include in any future stories like this.

Third, you do not mention that what the eye witness, Mrs. Albers, saw varies
from the account given to the police by the Menard's employee. According to
her, the kitten was struck repeatedly and was flailing it's legs and tail
during the beating. I have a hard time believing this to be "mercy".

Finally, I find some of the comments made by Joe Stroik to be disturbing at
best. Whether the employee did or did not know about ordinance control is
beside the point. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for inappropriate
behavior. The question over whether the kitten was stray or not should have
nothing to do with how the animal was treated. Are not all the animals
found running at large considered stray until they are claimed by an owner?
The fact that no owner has come forward now, a month later, has nothing to
do with how that kitten was treated on that day, at that time. They were
not and could not have been certain that it was a stray at the time that it
was killed. Whether the kitten would have been euthanized after being
collected by ordinance control is an assumption - again - of the animal
being "critically injured", we have no proof of that being so.

I certainly hope that you will print a follow-up story correcting the false
impression you have left on the public that this was a minor issue being
questioned by a group of crazy animal lovers and that no real crime has been
committed. I also hope that you include the ridiculous and unprofessional
response by Ray at Menard's headquarters when my friend Gina Knetter
informed him of this act being committed."

Ray's response, by the way, was, "This is total bull."

Ray can be reached at or 1-800-menards.

The chief of police quoted in the article above was spoken to by the eye
witness and informed of many things of which he was unaware... due to the
ineptitude of the officer on the scene. The eye witness writes, "I did talk
with cheif Stroik today. We actually had a nice talk about it all. I
voiced my concerns about the fact that there didn't seem to be an official
report and that there were some misrepresentations in the newspaper article.
For one, the kitten was not beaten to death - it was pinned to the ground
with a lawn edger on its neck. My husband saw the final "push", I couldn't
see anymore because my eyes were so filled with tears! Cheif Stroik had me
email him my letter to the press and also describe in detail what I saw &
how officer Rice handled the situation. He was actually surprised at what I
had to say - Officer Rice never put my name in the report and also she
didn't file it right away either. I think that after talking with me & once
he reads all the facts I typed for him, he will have a different view on the
whole situation. I did ask him if he tried to get the surveillance tapes
for the parking lot (which I am sure Menards would have or DID have). He
said no, but he would look into it. cross your fingers!"

The local news has been informed of the incident, and it sounds as though
the local CBS affiliate will be running a story on it sometime this next
week. After that airs (if it does, let's hope so), there may be more public
outcry, but we can always use a few extra phone calls or e-mails to let
Menards know that such things are not acceptable and ARE in fact, a
violation of law (my sister has contacted the animal legal defense fund and
they've verified that it was illegal).

For those of you that have waded through all of this, thank you for your
time.

For those of you that call or write to express your anger and disgust, thank
you VERY much.

~K











You are a nut. Get help.

Egad. I thought I had you killfiled.

You are a nut. Get help.

Egad. I thought I had you killfiled.

You are a nut. Get help.

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 12:37:22 GMT, "buglady"
wrote:




.......so she was concerned about the animal, but since she didn't want to
do anything herself, tried to make someone else do something then complains
about the result? All could have been avoided if she had taken the kitten
to the vet herself. But then that would have cost money and her shopping
would have been interrupted I guess. Phooey on people like this.



So, in other words, the person who tried to get help for the animal is
to blame, and not the jerk who killed the poor kitten with a lawn
edger or the manager who told him to do it.
__________________________________________________ _

Camilla Cracchiolo
Registered Nurse
Los Angeles, California

webpage temporarily down

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 12:37:22 GMT, "buglady"
wrote:




.......so she was concerned about the animal, but since she didn't want to
do anything herself, tried to make someone else do something then complains
about the result? All could have been avoided if she had taken the kitten
to the vet herself. But then that would have cost money and her shopping
would have been interrupted I guess. Phooey on people like this.



So, in other words, the person who tried to get help for the animal is
to blame, and not the jerk who killed the poor kitten with a lawn
edger or the manager who told him to do it.
__________________________________________________ _

Camilla Cracchiolo
Registered Nurse
Los Angeles, California

webpage temporarily down

I would like
to hear what Menard's has to say, and I will call them

I emailed that guy and heard nothing back but mine was not really a tactful,
polite email.

Does PETA respond to such things?

Yes, they do, and if they don't like a business, they can be very annoying. It
doesn't mean they would take this on but they do take on things of this nature.


Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

I would like
to hear what Menard's has to say, and I will call them

I emailed that guy and heard nothing back but mine was not really a tactful,
polite email.

Does PETA respond to such things?

Yes, they do, and if they don't like a business, they can be very annoying. It
doesn't mean they would take this on but they do take on things of this nature.


Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

I think what is most disturbing about this post is that it is almost
completely false. Kalyahna should be ashamed of herself for posting lies.
Do you not investigate a story before posting it? It's sad that we get
so caught up in one person's version of what happened. I happen to work
at the store where the incident happened and it's frustrating that only
one side has been told.

For the record, the store manager did not know anything about the incident
until after it happened. The woman who "witnessed" it named him, though.
I guess she wasn't a very good witness since she doesn't have the names
straight. She also claims that the kitten was beaten to death. That
implies that it was struck numerous times. Again, not what happened.
What is interesting in all of this is that the woman who started this
whole e-mail scam happens to be a relative of the department manager who
was ultimately fired for the incident. I guess she wasn't aware that it
was her relative that made the decision? Either that or she was
completely aware and wanted him fired for some reason. It makes me
question her motives. Maybe her concern wasn't at all about the cat. I'm
inclined to think that she had her own personal agenda and by getting the
guy fired, she accomplished her goal. Very disturbing that one poor
judgment call has cost a man his job and left his family, which includes 4
children, without an income.

I think what is most disturbing about this post is that it is almost
completely false. Kalyahna should be ashamed of herself for posting lies.
Do you not investigate a story before posting it? It's sad that we get
so caught up in one person's version of what happened. I happen to work
at the store where the incident happened and it's frustrating that only
one side has been told.

For the record, the store manager did not know anything about the incident
until after it happened. The woman who "witnessed" it named him, though.
I guess she wasn't a very good witness since she doesn't have the names
straight. She also claims that the kitten was beaten to death. That
implies that it was struck numerous times. Again, not what happened.
What is interesting in all of this is that the woman who started this
whole e-mail scam happens to be a relative of the department manager who
was ultimately fired for the incident. I guess she wasn't aware that it
was her relative that made the decision? Either that or she was
completely aware and wanted him fired for some reason. It makes me
question her motives. Maybe her concern wasn't at all about the cat. I'm
inclined to think that she had her own personal agenda and by getting the
guy fired, she accomplished her goal. Very disturbing that one poor
judgment call has cost a man his job and left his family, which includes 4
children, without an income.