In a surprise move, defense attorneys Daily and Gardner, during opening remarks to the jury, admitted that the defendants were guilty of intentionally entering the shelter with baseball bats to kill cats. They called it a stupid, teenage mistake.

The defense's position was that a stray cat's life is basically worthless, and that is what they attempted to convince the jury of during the following days of the trial. The prosecution argued that there were thousands of dollars in veterinary bills sustained by the injured animals, potential adoption fees of $50 per cat that could have been charged by the shelter for the cats that were killed along with all of the care and medical procedures that the cats were given during their lives at Noah's Ark, which included neutering and spaying, vaccinations, blood tests and other medical procedures all of which add to the value of the animal.

The defense called no witnesses. In closing arguments, prosecutor, John Morrissey, made an eloquent presentation about all of the ways that the jury should consider an animal's life in this case. He asked them to consider what lawmakers were thinking when they wrote this law as to what its intent was with respect to the value of these animal's lives, because if they were worth a dime a dozen then some 60,000 cats would have had to be killed to bring this charge up to the felony level, and he added, that couldn't be what the legislature had in mind. He also tried to give the jury a sense of what happened that night inside the shelter, the violence, the mayhem that ensued as these cats were helplessly rounded up and beaten to death.

The ruling in the Noah's Ark case was that "stray cats" had limited monetary value, therefore the standards of felony destruction could not be applied. The disappointing trial verdict in Iowa led Noah's Ark founders along with the Iowa Federation of Humane Societies, to launch a fund-raising campaign to hire a lobbyist and develop a campaign for a legislative initiative that would make animal cruelty a felony in Iowa. I am pleased to note that stronger felony laws were instituted in Iowa in the 21st century. Perhaps other states will soon follow suit.

After deliberating a little over two hours, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on the three counts charged against the defendants. Those charges were breaking, entering and burglary; offenses against an animal shelter; and other related offenses against an animal shelter. The first two were Class D felony charges punishable by up to 6 years in prison per charge and $7,500 in fines.

The jury however, failed to find the value of the dead and injured cats worth more than $500, the amount needed to uphold the felony count and this subsequently dropped the charge down to an aggravated misdemeanor, punishable by 2 years in prison and up to $5,000 per charge, which made the men eligible for up to 5 years in prison and $11,000 in fines.

Judge Daniel Wilson issued a sentence to the two convicted defendants in the Noah’s Ark cat killing case on Friday, December 19th at the conclusion of a three-hour hearing. The two men were sentenced to the following punishment: they received a 2 year suspended sentence which was then reduced to 23 days in the County jail plus credit for time they had already spent in jail in March when they were first arrested; $2,500 in fines; and entrance into the Youthful Offender program which is a 4 year program for first time offenders who do not have a previous criminal record. In addition he gave them 3 years of probation.

What's the law in your state?

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Created 12/18/99
Updated 06/25/05