A young man has been arrested in connection to a string of unusual kitten deaths at the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter.
Gabriel Caswell, 21, faces two counts of cruelty towards non-livestock animals and possibly more as investigators continue to search through surveillance footage.
While Caswell was employed at the shelter from February to July, approximately 80 kittens died — an uptick from the annual average of 20. The increase alarmed the shelter operators enough to launch an inquiry into the situation.
“It is a lot,” Weatherford Police Department Sgt. Tiffany Vanzant said, according to WFAA. “It’s awful.”
Before involving the police, the shelter had suspected the deaths were driven by disease or an environmental cause. The leadership reviewed safety protocols, installed new HVAC systems, and more. Yet the necropsies of the dead kittens gleaned no answers, and the deaths continued, with as many as 41 kittens dying between June and July.
On July 14, another shelter employee allegedly witnessed Caswell inflicting fatal injuries on a kitten. The police were called, and Caswell was fired, as indicated by Dustin Deel, the city’s director of municipal and community services, according to WFAA.
Caswell was arrested for the alleged abuse and released on a $10,000 bond.
Investigators later found surveillance footage of him allegedly abusing kittens.
“It’s something we don’t want to have to put out there in detail, but it’s just enough for these kittens to have died … so it’s graphic in nature,” explained Vanzant, according to WFAA. “We’re all shocked and disgusted by this case.”
The surveillance footage gave police probable cause to arrest Caswell again on July 29 and formally charge him with animal cruelty. According to jail records, he has since been released on a $250,000 bond.
Caswell has not been conclusively linked to all the animal deaths that occurred during his employment with the shelter. The investigation is still ongoing.
The shelter expressed their grief and shock over the incident in a statement.
“Our shelter team of staff and volunteers take a lot of pride in the love and care we provide to the animals that visit our shelter. For something like this to happen is unfathomable,” the statement read, according to WFAA.
As recently reported in The Dallas Express, a Collin County woman was arrested after officers found 12 dead horses and 24 dead dogs on her grandparents’ land.
Rachel Ann Sword told the authorities that her husband had been the animals’ caretaker but had died weeks earlier. She reportedly explained she could not complete the task herself due to depression.
Under Texas penal code, someone who “tortures an animal or in a cruel manner kills or causes serious bodily injury to an animal” or “fails unreasonably to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter for an animal in the person’s custody” can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor if they have no previous convictions for a similar offense.
The punishment can include up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, or both.
A study using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System found that out of 150 adult males arrested for animal cruelty, 41% had been arrested at least once for interpersonal violence, 28% for different interpersonal crimes such as harassment, and 18% for sexual offenses such as rape.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, 62 instances of animal cruelty have been committed in Dallas so far this year. As far as violent crimes go, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) logged 221 rapes and 4,281 aggravated assaults as of August 14.
Investigation and arrests in connection with these crimes are made difficult by a severe staff shortage within DPD. According to a City analysis, the department is short roughly 900 officers, falling well short of the 4,000 needed to adequately police the city.
The shortage has been felt in Downtown Dallas. The neighborhood sees considerably more crime than Fort Worth’s downtown area, which reportedly has a dedicated police unit working alongside private security guards.