Upstate NY Man Arrested for Cruel Act of Spray-Painting Squirrels
Despite all his rage, he was spray-painting squirrels in a cage.
A man in Putnam County went completely nuts recently, spray-painting squirrels with red Rust-Oleum because they apparently annoyed him. He was arrested and charged with three counts of "poisoning an animal."
62-year-old Mark Kuhn, disgruntled by the incessant chattering of squirrels on his property, committed the heinous act of trapping squirrels in a have-a-heart trap, but then doing something which was decidedly without a heart-- he sprayed them with toxic red paint.
Who would do such a thing?!
Kuhn's reasoning was that he was trying to create a deterrent of sorts, so the rodents would be dissuaded from coming back to his yard, where they would often rile up his dogs. He also wanted to keep tabs on if it was the same group of squirrels coming back, or if there was an ongoing influx of new ones.
Kuhn was already on the radar of Putnam County's probation's department from a previous unrelated incident. The SPCA -- which has the power to arrest in these types of circumstances -- was then tipped off about Kuhn's illegal tagging.
Speaking to a local news outlet, Putnam County SPCA Chief Ken Ross said:
This is a first. This is not something that we deal with every day. I mean, animal cruelty takes a lot of different forms and every day there’s something new.
Kuhn's three counts of poisoning an animal are a misdemeanor under New York State Agriculture and Markets Law.
Welcome to the colorful side of animal cruelty.
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