What is a community vs. companion cat?

Two court cases show that both are entitled to rescue and protection

“A screenshot of a Cleveland police officer’s body camera showing the 8-month-old kitten that Alonzo Kyles put bleach on to get it out of his apartment building.”

All cats are protected from cruelty

In 2021, an Ohio man poured bleach on a little stray cat who came into an apartment building to get out of the cold. Another resident of the building called the police.

One of the responding officers reported hearing a cat “meowing very loudly, like it was in pain” and observed considerable amounts of bleach covering the basement floor. The officer reported that “the cat was lying down in the bleach” and concluded that the cat “was meowing in pain because he had never heard a cat meow like that.”

The officer noticed bleach on her fur. Her paws were also burned, red, and swollen. Thankfully, the cat survived and went on to be adopted, with the man who tortured her convicted of felony animal cruelty and sentenced to jail. But he appealed and argued that he couldn’t be convicted of felony abuse because a stray cat, who was not “owned,” was not a “companion animal.”

Shockingly, the appellate judges agreed and reversed his conviction.

The question before the appellate court was whether a stray kitten was a “companion animal“ for purposes of felony animal cruelty. Since 1871, Ohio has criminalized cruelty to animals. But in the early 2000s, state lawmakers recognized a need for greater protection for “companion animals.” The law they passed made it a felony to cause “serious physical harm to a companion animal.” But in a stunning decision, the Ohio Court of Appeals ruled that since the cat had no known “owner,” the new law making abuse a felony did not apply.

That decision harkened back to the 19th century when the abuse of animals wasn’t concerned with protecting animals but with preserving the “property” rights of people. Killing or abusing one’s pet was not illegal because a person was deemed to have the right to do what he wanted with his “property.” Likewise, harming a homeless pet was not unlawful because there was no property interest. The animal did not matter in either scenario.