Published: April 21, 2009 11:12 pm      

Sheriff vows fast action on Cabell Heights cat terrorists

A gang of youthful archers with a penchant for terrorizing cats and other animals was brought to the attention Tuesday of the Raleigh County Commission by Cabell Heights resident Orville Payne in a plea for help and a veiled warning he might take legal action if ignored.

Afterward, Sheriff Steve Tanner said Payne’s appearance was the first time he had been made aware that some juveniles, reported to be about 12 years old, had wounded cats and pet rabbits. Tanner vowed that immediate action would be taken.

“I would anticipate that within the next few days we’ll have a resolution to it,” Tanner told reporters.

About a month ago, Payne said, his wife’s cat crawled through their backyard, “dragging its rear legs with an arrow sticking out of its butt.

“Thank God none of my grandchildren live close to me,” he said.

A veterinarian charged $500 to treat the wounded feline, which, in his opinion, appeared to have been not only shot with an arrow but stomped for good measure.

Nine days later, Payne told the commission, a second cat appeared with an eye missing. An examination led a veterinarian to conclude the animal had been stabbed in the eye, once in the throat and then suffered the further indignity of having an arrow shoved inside its throat.

While there, Payne forked over $250 and said he must shell out a like amount to have the cat’s eye removed.

On two occasions, he said, a deputy sheriff and state trooper advised him to identify the boys responsible and then they would talk to them.

“This is not my job, people,” Payne said.

“I can’t be knocking on doors, accusing their kids of things. I tried that. I got an irate father. He cussed me out.”

Payne said anyone familiar with hunting knows arrows can be deflected and bounce in all directions, and within a 500-foot diameter of house live 10 babies.

Before leading into the cat situation, Payne described himself as a retired miner who finished 10th in his 1970 high school class at Sophia with an IQ of 134 and who attended West Virginia Tech.

“So you’re not talking to some dumb old country boy here,” he said.

Payne also reeled off some civic groups he is associated with — Boy Scouts, Salvation Army, Mac’s Toy Fund — and later said he knows by experience that one must take a stand with youth when they get out of hand, otherwise they will run rampant once becoming teenagers.

Payne tossed out some names of high-profile criminals — Albert DeSalvo, Patrick Sherrill, Carroll Cole and Jeffrey Dahmer — to illustrate another point.

“Most serial killers and rapists start out torturing animals,” he said.

“You know what my next step is? It’s a lawsuit, failure to respond. I don’t want to get mean and nasty. But I’m not going to sit back and let this roll over top of me. It’s a great problem with a little gang of 12-year-old boys. I’m finding arrows in everybody’s back yard. One cat missing. One dead, one mutilated. A lady down the street raises rabbits. They broke into her rabbit pens and killed a bunch of other rabbits.”

Tanner told reporters he looked through his department’s computer system for the past five years and never found Payne’s name listed among complaints on file, but added Payne himself might not have been the one personally to report the cat mutilation.

As for not responding last Saturday night, Tanner reminded reporters of a hostage situation involving a man armed with a gun.

“We obviously have to take priorities and take care of a situation with people in danger,” the sheriff said.

“It will, however, get our attention. There will be investigations. We will check in the neighborhood. We will talk to the children and see what we can do to alleviate the problem. This is the first we’ve become aware of it.”