(Credit: Uintah Animal Control and Shelter SSD, Facebook. This shows the stretch of road where one kitten was found.)
UINTAH COUNTY — Animal control officials in Vernal call it an extra level of cruelty. They’re hoping someone can help them find a driver who reportedly threw kittens out of a speeding car.
Investigators say a witness saw an older car driving extremely fast on U-88 between Highway 40 and the Pelican Lake turnoff. Apart from that, they don’t know anything about the car or the driver.
“It was going too fast for the witness to get a plate or a make of the car, other than it’s an older model tan car,” according to Uintah Animal Control and Shelter SSD Spokesperson Christina Williams.
The bodies of the cats were found in the lanes of traffic, and there was nothing officers could have done to save them
Williams says, “When animal control arrived on the scene, the kittens, all three were dead, likely from the impact.”
They hope others may have seen that vehicle driving down the road or that someone may know who was driving it. Williams says animal abuse cases aren’t uncommon.
“I’ve been in the business 33 years, as an officer and an administrator. This is disgusting, but it’s common,” she says.
However, Williams says this case is especially nasty. She believes it was done by someone who wanted the animals to suffer.
“A lot of people that would get rid of an animal would just take it out and dump a load of kittens in the dump, alive, and hope they can fend for themselves. Or, they’ll dump them out in somebody’s farm,” Williams says.