A McAllen man was arrested for allegedly causing the death of a brown-and-white cat after he used a zip tie instead of a collar to leash it, but the cat may have died during the rescue operation.
The cat was one of three that were seen struggling to breathe last week. A caller told police three cats were tied to the balcony of an apartment located in the 2300 block of Iris Avenue, according to a criminal complaint.
The owner, Bruce Neal Vasquez, 47, had reportedly used zip ties instead of collars to tie the cats to a leash.
Vazquez was eventually charged with two different types of animal cruelty charges.
THE RESCUE
When the responding officer arrived, the cats were still visibly in distress.
According to the report, the officer saw one cat “laying in the same position the entire time, a second cat…laying down and walking around very slowly and breathing heavily, and the third cat…struggling to stand up and to breathe.”
The officer called the McAllen Fire Department for help, and firefighters brought a ladder to climb up to the balcony and rescue the cats.
During the rescue, however, the first responders appear to have lost sight of one of the cats. Police believe it unintentionally wandered off.
“Animal warden officers were able to locate the third cat on the ground, which appeared that the cat stumbled off the balcony due to being suffocated by the zip tie,” the complaint said.
Officers called Vasquez, but he hung up after he was told what happened, the report said.
The following day, Vasquez “was transported” to the McAllen police station where he said he used zip ties on the cats because he didn’t have any collars and didn’t want them to run away, according to the complaint.
Vasquez said he understood how zip ties worked, but that he never meant to hurt his cats.
According to jail records, he remained jailed Tuesday on $14,000 in bonds.
