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Cat Found Hanging From Baseball Field Backstop

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A cat was found hanging from a noose near Encina Preparatory High School Friday morning.

"We were driving and she said is that a cat out there hanging from the post?" said Terra Haley who lives nearby.

The cat was hanging from the backstop on the baseball field.

"Why would someone do that to a poor cat like that?" Sierra Nathan asked her mom. "What if that happens to our cat?"

Haley then had to explain to her eight-year-old what she was seeing.

"People at the school here saw it. Anybody in the neighborhood could've seen it. Just the fact that somebody could do that is just really sad," she said.

A Sacramento psychologist said it's hard to know exactly why someone would do such a thing.

"If you asked that question, you think, 'Well, where does that come from and [does] it come from parental abuse or parental neglect?" said Dr. Daniel Rockers, who said abuse is often the first sign of serious disturbances among teens and serial killers.

"It could be an early warning signal, but that's the problem with a lot of psychological issues is, yeah, it could be, but there's a lot of people that it's in and it doesn't," he said.

Or in this case, it could be revenge or even a learned behavior.

"Has this type of mean-spirited behavior been modeled to a kid and is that where they learned it from?" Rockers said.

It's something he believes is important to catch early and keep a close eye on.

As for whoever hanged the cat for all to see, the county said there are severe consequences.

"We don't want to see that with children, with adults, with anyone. It's something that we deal with on a semi-regular basis and something we try to combat," said Janna Hayes with Sacramento County Animal Care and Regulation.

An autopsy is expected to be performed Monday to find out what happened. If you have any information, call 311.

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