'Horrendous': Pet cat found cut in half in Port Angeles park



PORT ANGELES, Wash. – Port Angeles police are investigating after a pet cat was found cut in half in a local park.

"I’ve never experienced to the extent of what I experienced Sunday morning," said Officer JJ Smith with the Port Angeles Police Department.

Smith is the one that responded to the call of a dead animal found in the park.

She says when she got to the scene she found the body of a cat cut cleanly in half, and spread out about 25 feet.

"It’s hard to imagine who would have done something like that," she said.

Debbie Drake, the cat's owner, said the same thing.

"That it was intentionally done makes it much worse," said Drake.

Drake says she adopted Tarot about seven years ago.

“We lost a member of our family in an unimaginable way,” said Drake

Deputy Police Chief Jason Vida said the body of the cat, named Tarot, was found Sunday in the playground and picnic area of Shane Park.

“This was definitely human-caused,” Vida said.

Vida said the cut was done with “a clean, sharp tool.”

“Everyone in the city is broke up over this,” Vida said.

The cat’s death is being investigated as first-degree animal cruelty, a Class C felony.

“I haven’t been able to make sense of it,” the cat’s owner, Debbie Drake, told the Peninsula Daily News. “It’s not something a normal person can wrap their head around — how somebody can do something so horrendous.”