Texas board suspends license of vet who killed cat with bow and arrow

AUSTIN, Texas (CBS) — Kristen Lindsey is seen smiling in a photo that depicts a cat dangling from an arrow.

Lindsey posted the photo to Facebook and boasted about it.

On Tuesday state panel suspended the license of Lindsey, a Texas veterinarian, because she used a bow and the arrow pictured in her photo to kill a cat that had wandered onto her property.

The Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners determined that Lindsey can’t practice for a year. Her suspension will be followed by four years’ probation.

Animal advocates from across the country attended Lindsey’s hearing, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. Board members heard testimony from several people involved, including a family who claimed the cat was theirs and that it was neutered.

Her lawyer, Brian Bishop, told the board she believed the cat was feral and that it isn’t unusual for people near her rural home west of Houston to dispose of feral animals.

A co-worker of Lindsey’s told the board she overheard Lindsey speaking with her boss and landlord who told her to “take care of the cat,” KHOU reported.

“What I understood him to mean was for Kristen to shoot the cat,” said Karen Chapman, Lindsey’s co-worker. “… People do that all the time in Washington County.”

However, Bishop said she shouldn’t have posted an image to Facebook in April 2015, but that she didn’t act with “criminal recklessness.”