“I was advised … that ‘if it [were a choice] between 1 minute of down time for the assembly line and the kitten, the kitten would lose.’” —Eyewitness
PETA’s Domestic Animal Issues & Abuse Department has received documentation of what is alleged to have been a June 2, 2003, incident, during which Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK), employees deliberately caused the mutilation and death of two kittens whose location posed an inconvenience to production. We are told that the employees present—a maintenance team member and the maintenance team leader—were made aware that at least one kitten was trapped inside a trailer in the process of receiving heavy cargo. Employees are said to have refused outright to manually unload the trailer in order to spare the kitten. When the cargo was finally unloaded, two kittens had been mangled in the machinery. Click here to view images.
While authorities consider an investigation, we need your help to break the silence at TMMK.
Local authorities have decided not to file criminal charges in this case, reportedly because they do not believe that there was “intent.” However, § 525.130 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes states, “A person is guilty of cruelty to animals in the second degree when except as authorized by law he intentionally or wantonly: (a) Subjects any animal to or causes cruel or injurious mistreatment through abandonment, … mutilation, beating, … tormenting, failing to provide adequate food, drink, space, or health care, or by any other means” (emphasis added). The statute defines “wantonly” as follows: “A person acts wantonly with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists” (emphasis added).
Please urge authorities to take these allegations seriously, conduct a thorough criminal investigation, and file appropriate charges against anyone who deliberately hurt and killed kittens at this plant. Politely remind them that individuals who demonstrate a blatant disregard for the lives and suffering of animals likely also pose a definitive risk to the community at large (see
http://www.peta.org/mc/facts/fsc24.html):
Chief Bernard Palmer
Georgetown Police Department
550 Bourbon St.
Georgetown, KY 40324
Fax: 502-867-6991
The Honorable Clay McKnight
Scott County Attorney
Justice Bldg., 119 N. Hamilton
Georgetown, KY 40324
Fax: 502-863-7871
To read PETA’s letters to the above parties, click on the following links:
http://www.peta.org/alert/03/Toyotafinaland proofed.pdf
http://www.peta.org/alert/03/Toyotap...dCAproofed.pdf
http://www.peta.org/alert/automation...tem.asp?id=791