This is sort of a long story, so please bear with me.

The short version:
In mid August, at a Menard's store in Marshfield, Wisconsin (pop: 20,000), a
wounded kitten was bludgeoned to death by a store employee at the direction
of his manager, a man named Dave Hoak.

The police have done nothing except say that in future situations, the
ordinance officers should be called. The local news herald took a month to
publish anything at all about this horrible situation and didn't offer
anything better.

The long version:
"In mid August 2004, a store patron saw a bleeding cat lying in the parking
lot at Menards. This person reported to teh service desk that a cat was in
the parking lot, obviously injured. She asked that help be sought for the
frightened animal, and expressed her concern for it. The store manager was
contacted and directed two young male employees to take a lawn edger out to
the parking lot and beat the cat to death. The young men did what they were
told to do by their manager. This extremely violent act was witnessed by
other store patrons moving through the parking lot. One of these patrons
went to the same service desk to report what was happening to the cat and
was told that they were aware of what was going on outside.

A local veterinary office was called about the incident, as was the local
police department. A third person called the manager at Menards to question
him about the incident. The caller was told it was, "just like hunting,
sir." At this time, the manager is still employed by Menards."
-- This from the only eyewitness to come forward.

This is the news herald article that attempts to cover what happened. The
author's contact info is available at the bottom of the screen.
http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/281452133135965.shtml

My sister is the "friend" at Marshfield Veterinary Service. Her response to
his article follows. It is abridged slightly to keep to the topic at hand:
"Mr. Gneiser,

I am deeply disappointed in your article regarding the death of the kitten
in Menard's parking lot.  I'm afraid that from the very beginning of your
article, there are obvious problems with this story.

First, you did not mention that this animal was a kitten and lead readers
to believe that it was an adult cat.

Second, you state repeatedly that this animal was "critically injured".  I
would like to know who is qualified to make that judgment.  Are the
employees at Menard's trained in veterinary medicine? After working over 5
years in the field of veterinary medicine, I have learned a few things about
injury and trauma.  Shock can often set in and cause the animal to go into a
coma-like state. With treatment, shock can often be overcome, and depending
on the extent of other injuries, many animals can recover.  I guess we will
never know the state of that animal because the employee took it upon
himself to make that call.  The police can make no judgment on the extent of
the injury because no one in their department has even seen the animal, even
though they keep saying it was "critically injured". Perhaps you should seek
the opinion of a veterinarian to include in any future stories like this.

Third, you do not mention that what the eye witness, Mrs. Albers, saw varies
from the account given to the police by the Menard's employee.  According to
her, the kitten was struck repeatedly and was flailing it's legs and tail
during the beating. I have a hard time believing this to be "mercy".

Finally, I find some of the comments made by Joe Stroik to be disturbing at
best.  Whether the employee did or did not know about ordinance control is
beside the point.  Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for inappropriate
behavior.  The question over whether the kitten was stray or not should have
nothing to do with how the animal was treated.  Are not all the animals
found running at large considered stray until they are claimed by an owner?
The fact that no owner has come forward now, a month later, has nothing to
do with how that kitten was treated on that day, at that time.  They were
not and could not have been certain that it was a stray at the time that it
was killed.  Whether the kitten would have been euthanized after being
collected by ordinance control is an assumption - again - of the animal
being "critically injured", we have no proof of that being so.

I certainly hope that you will print a follow-up story correcting the false
impression you have left on the public that this was a minor issue being
questioned by a group of crazy animal lovers and that no real crime has been
committed. I also hope that you include the ridiculous and unprofessional
response by Ray at Menard's headquarters when my friend Gina Knetter
informed him of this act being committed."

Ray's response, by the way, was, "This is total bull."

Ray can be reached at guest@menard-inc.com or 1-800-menards.

The chief of police quoted in the article above was spoken to by the eye
witness and informed of many things of which he was unaware... due to the
ineptitude of the officer on the scene. The eye witness writes, "I did talk
with cheif Stroik today.  We actually had a nice talk about it all.  I
voiced my concerns about the fact that there didn't seem to be an official
report and that there were some misrepresentations in the newspaper article.
For one, the kitten was not beaten to death - it was pinned to the ground
with a lawn edger on its neck.  My husband saw the final "push", I couldn't
see anymore because my eyes were so filled with tears!  Cheif Stroik had me
email him my letter to the press and also describe in detail what I saw &
how officer Rice handled the situation.  He was actually surprised at what I
had to say - Officer Rice never put my name in the report and also she
didn't file it right away either.  I think that after talking with me & once
he reads all the facts I typed for him, he will have a different view on the
whole situation.  I did ask him if he tried to get the surveillance tapes
for the parking lot (which I am sure Menards would have or DID have).  He
said no, but he would look into it. cross your fingers!"

The local news has been informed of the incident, and it sounds as though
the local CBS affiliate will be running a story on it sometime this next
week. After that airs (if it does, let's hope so), there may be more public
outcry, but we can always use a few extra phone calls or e-mails to let
Menards know that such things are not acceptable and ARE in fact, a
violation of law (my sister has contacted the animal legal defense fund and
they've verified that it was illegal).

For those of you that have waded through all of this, thank you for your
time.

For those of you that call or write to express your anger and disgust, thank
you VERY much.

~K