KAYSVILLE, Utah – At just 8 weeks old, two of the newest rescues at Davis County Animal Shelter have a come a long way since Wednesday, when Natalie Clements found them tossed along I-15.
“I mean, they treated it like it was garbage,” Clements said of the incident.
Clements was headed home from work, driving on I-15 north near Kaysville, when she noticed a person toss something from a truck ahead. At first she thought it was garbage, but she suddenly became horrified when she realized it was an animal.
“It just kind of flopped,” she said. “It just rolled on the ground, and I just absolutely got shocked because I could tell it was alive.”
Before she could turn around to help, though, she said it happened again. From a few cars back, she saw someone in the passenger seat throw more cats out the window.
“They were still going so fast, and that’s when the next group of cats got chucked out,” Clements said. “It’s hard to talk about because I love animals, and I find that the people that did this are cowardly and disrespectful.”
The Humane Society of Utah has offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible, and The Humane Society of the United States also offered $2,500, for a total of $5,000.
Clements found a cat and two of her kittens dead along the shoulder of the freeway, but she was able to rescue the mother’s two other kittens from the road.
Tracy Roddom is the assistant director at the Davis County Animal Shelter, and she said the act was disturbing.
“It’s horrific,” she said. “I mean, I can’t even imagine consciously doing something like that when the shelter was probably 10 minutes away from them.”
The two kittens, both males, are now recovering at the shelter. According to staff, they did not have any physical injuries, but were visibly shaken.
“We took them in and just loved them, and they’re doing really well today,” Roddom said.
The shelter hopes to be able to find them new homes soon and track down the people who left them without one.
According to Clements, the truck was a maroon F-150. Anyone with information is asked to contact Davis County Animal Control at 801-444-2200.
