By JESSICA LUTGENS
Editorial Assistant
Tragedy has once again struck New Richland, only this time it wasn’t an accident. It was the work of several individuals who must remain nameless.
On the morning of Friday, January 18, a call was made to remove two dead cats from the roof of a building on Main Street. How did they get there? How did they die? Well, that’s the disturbing part.
Eyewitnesses have confirmed that a group of adolescents were seen torturing a cat two weeks ago. They proceeded to kick the cat until death and threw it onto the roof of the building. Two weeks later, a second cat was found on the roof. The second cat was mutilated, in the words of one witness. The head had been cut off, the legs were cut, and there were several stab wounds.
“They can’t try and say that because the cats were strays, they were going to die anyway,” a witness said. “They were obviously killed by someone.”
The New Richland Police Department has been contacted and is currently investigating the issue. Police Chief Scott Eads commented, “I believe that, over the course of the next week, we are going to be gleaning some valuable information pertaining to the case and other cases having occurred over the last few months.”
Because the case is still open and investigations are ongoing, no further information could be given from the Police Department at this time. They ask any resident with additional information to call (507) 465-3240.
The most important thing right now is to catch the community’s awareness of the issue. The more people who know about it, the quicker it can be resolved. An incident like this, which has now occurred on two separate days, needs to be stopped before it escalates further.
New Richland isn’t a bad city. But when we have several people repeatedly committing vandalism and other crimes, it makes us look like it. With the support and effort of our community, we can put an end to this, and hopefully discourage further criminal activities.