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COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Shocking home video of an attempted cat rescue on the Utah-Arizona border is drawing worldwide interest on the Internet. Rescuers allege the cat was put in jeopardy on purpose by someone connected with the FLDS group led by imprisoned polygamist Warren Jeffs.
Some former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were building a shelter for horses, with hollow metal pipes set in concrete to support the roof. When they broke for the night, they never imagined what they were going to hear the next morning.
"All of a sudden you started hearing a meowing, and you're like, ‘Where is that coming from?'" Andrew Chatwin said.
All of a sudden you started hearing a meowing, and you're like, 'Where is that coming from?'
–Andrew Chatwin, former FLDS member
Chatwin shot the video that's now going viral on the Internet. It shows a cat buried in concrete up to its neck, meowing pitifully for help.
Chatwin set out to rescue the kitten, later nicknamed Thomas, by cutting him out of the pipe. He believes someone watched him leave, then put the kitten in the pipe when the concrete was wet. It set overnight.
The project was on the property of Isaac Wyler, a prominent critic of Warren Jeffs ever since the FLDS leader kicked Wyler out several years ago.
"Obviously, I made them angry," Wyler said. "The day I wouldn't leave town, I made them angry."
Wyler says he's been harassed for years: dead ducks, pigeons and many dead cats have been thrown on his property. He believes it's the work of Jeffs' loyal followers.
"They're just trying to intimidate me. That's the way I took it: they were just trying to send me a message," Wyler said.
"What kind of message (is it)? Chatwin asked. "It's a death threat. It's, ‘We're displeased with you.Leave!'"
Chatwin chipped Thomas out of his concrete prison, eventually handing the cat off to an animal rescuer. But Thomas was severely injured by his entrapment and died a week later, despite loving care from the Best Friends Animal Society.
"It's time to send a message back to say, ‘Please stop using animals to harass Isaac," Chatwin said.
"I just got so thick-skinned, now I just don't even worry about it," Wyler said.
Chatwin did report the incident to local law enforcement, but as far as he knows the investigation has not gone anywhere. So, we may never know who actually did it.
