Three Comcast contract workers were arrested when a witness discovered that a kitten had been spray-painted and nearly kicked to death, ABC 4 in West Valley, Utah reports. Jesus Villalovos was arrested for animal cruelty and obstruction of justice and 2 other men were cited with class B misdemeanors. The men were working in the area as contractors for Comcast around the time of the incident. Details, inside…
The article says,
A three-month-old gray tabby kitten was tortured. Mike Merrill, the only witness to the crime, said, “There was four people spray painting and kicking it from side to side.”
When Merrill got to the kitten, he said it looked lifeless. He said, “Basically seemed like it was almost dead…spray painted all the way down its back.”
Animal Control officers rushed the kitten to a veterinarian with concerns of internal injuries and severe shock.
Police said the men accused of spray painting and kicking the kitten are contract workers for Comcast. The cable company released a statement saying, “We are outraged and deeply saddened by this incident. We are fully cooperating with police and will take appropriate action once we have all the facts.”
Jesus Villalovos was arrested on charges of animal cruelty and obstruction of justice. Police said Villalovos spray painted the cat and lied to them.
Two other men were cited with class B misdemeanors.
The good news is that the kitten will be just fine. Merrill said if an owner doesn’t claim the cat in the next three days, he will adopt it.
We are speechless, Comcast. We suppose when there are no little girls to run over, you resort to torturing a kitten. Bravo.
West Valley man arrested for spray painting kitten [ABC 4] (Thanks to Austin!)
(Photo: ABC 4)
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So glad the kitten will be ok. Hopefully the animal cruelty charge is a felony with serious punishment. Disappointed that the other 2 don’t get harsher charges – if you don’t stop animal abuse – you are just as guilty.
And I am sure Comcast (and many other Corporations) can find better contractors if they wanted to.
@mikelotus: I totally agree. Seriously, all animals combined do not equal the net worth of one child.
You don’t even need to go as far as overseas. Plenty of children are abused at home or in foster care. I don’t mean spankings, I mean the really serious abuse.
Still reprehensible to hurt a cat. Hopefully the guy gets put away for a while. I vote they put him on a chain gang or something.
@mikelotus: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every time there’s an animal cruelty story, we can always count the seconds until some self-righteous windbag makes a “but what about PEOPLE?” type post. Here’s a thought: if you are so indifferent to animal cruelty, please feel free to skip right past these stories and focus your energy to helping the humans you care so much about.
Oh, but that would deprive you of a soapbox. Never mind.
People like this need to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. If they’ll do this shit to a poor harmless animal, there is no limit to what they’d do to a person. This is also a good example of when it is appropriate to form a mob and purge someone from society as an entire group.
Sorry, not following the absurd argument that since Comcast can’t screen out 100% of the bad apples, it’s wrong to expect them to screen out any.
This makes me so stabby… bastards!!!
If I would have seen this, the cops would have an additional arrest for assault on their hands.
I take great comfort in the knowledge that those bastards will die some day. Hopefully sooner than later.
Blaming Comcast for this is dopey. However, these guys should be spray painted in the face and kicked to death.
To all the abortions who got away that think that Comcast isn’t responsible:
I work for an airline
We contract out some of our flying to regional airlines…
Those regional jets have our name on them (just like these contractors use Comcast paperwork, etc)
If the pilots of a regional jet decided to…I dunno…not check the compass and takeoff from the wrong runway, plowing into a cornfield and killing all the pax onboard, who do you think the families are going to (rightfully) be mad at?
We sold them the service…and they could care less who flies our jets, who fuels them up, and who flips the burgers for the employees of our tire supplier…. It’s up to us to check everyone out and if they don’t comply, pick other people to do the job.
Sure we (and Comcast) save money by contracting out….but we have to be prepared to accept any/all risk for the contractors being dumbasses. Comcast is ignorant to think otherwise…
While I am as far as can be from a tin-foil-hatter, I would certainly think twice before allowing a Comcast contractor to come to my place when my gf is the only one home. If I were the CEO of company where my clients feared/mistrusted my employees, priority #1 would be to do whatever it takes to rectify the problem. Too bad Brian Roberts doesn’t think the same…
As someone who really enjoys having pets and loves them like family, reading things like this makes me feel quite sick. How the hell can there be people out there capable of doing things like this? These guys are very disturbed and are exactly the type who needs to be institutionalized.
If (and bear with me here for a minute) a Comcast contractor provides fantastic service, does Comcast tell the grateful customer “Oh, no, don’t give us any of the credit; that’s just an independent contractor, and we don’t check up to make sure that they’re competent and friendly”? Is it wrong to credit Comcast for hiring such a contractor?
Since the honest answers are no and no, then why is it so awful to hold Comcast responsible for which contractors it chooses to employ?
@LUV2CattleCall:
To all the abortions who got away that think that Comcast isn’t responsible:
That’s keepin’ it classy!
It’s comments like that that make me dislike this page more with each passing day.
And RE your analogy, it sucks. I loath people who abuse animals almost as much as I loath people who abuse kids, but some lowlifes abusing a kitten != a deranged pilot killing a plane load of people.
@muffinpan: While the actions may ‘reflect’ on Comcast, there is no legal liability for the actions of contract workers like there is for regular employees and agents. FYI.
On one hand it’s not Comcast’s fault but as was pointed out if they were representing Comcast on the clock for them they are responsible.The contractors are still working for Comcast so if nothing else Comcast should be reviewing the contractors procedurs and practices regularly.They should also know if the contractors use or used sub contractors.The work was done in Comcasts name so they are at least partially to blame.
This would’ve been much less likely to happen if a Comcast hourly employee had been out there.Hourly employees with benefits have much more at stake and are less likely to risk their employement.
@pal003: Actually it will be the utah state senate passed Senate Bill 297 (more info here [animalcruelty.utahhumane.org]) making it officially a felony to do such things. Penalty is 5 years in prison and a $5000 fine.
What a jackass though, why would you do that to a cat, no less a kitten. What did it do to you, bite and scratch? Gonna be a big man and teach it a lesson? Well hope you enjoy your human booster shot from a guy names Molly
Wow, and I thought all the “Comcast kills kittens and sleeps with your mother” jokes were just a joke…they look to be cementing their reputation.
Though, it isnt Comcast’s fault these guys are total assholes, though it still looks bad.
whats the big deal? Its a damn stray cat, and would have probably been better off dead than roaming the streets killing song birds and annoying the residents.