A man was jailed after Marion County sheriff’s deputies determined probable cause to arrest him for cutting off the tails of five kittens in September in Ocala.
On Sept. 29, at 425 NE 100th St., 68-year-old James Steele Reid of Anthony got into a verbal altercation with the kittens’ owner’s husband on a farm where Reid volunteered, according to an arrest report. After the altercation, Reid reportedly grabbed a pair of garden scissors, along with iodine, and got into a truck where he told a co-worker to get in and that he was going to cut off the kittens’ tails. The co-worker told Reid that he “shouldn’t do that” and that the wife who owns the kittens did nothing to him, the report stated. Reid responded, stating that he “wanted her to look at those cats and think of him.”
On Oct. 15, MCSO made phone contact with the co-worker, who gave further information that he was in the truck when Reid drove it to the barn where the kittens were located. The co-worker did not get out of the truck since he knew that Reid was going to cut the kittens’ tails off. He stated that when Reid returned to the truck, he was carrying four tails of the kittens and had lost the fifth tail.
Deputies received reports from an animal control officer to include it in the investigation, as well as a report from a veterinarian on staff. Deputies went to the stable where the kittens were and saw that all of their tails had been cut off.
Reid was arrested on Monday and was transported to Marion County Jail. Bond was set at $2,000.