Deputies: Ocala man used garden scissors to cut tails off kittens

MARION COUNTY, Fla. (WKMG) A Marion County man is accused of using garden scissors to cut the tails off five four-week-old kittens because he got into a fight with their owner, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said James Reid got into an argument with a man at the farm where he volunteers in Ocala and as retaliation, grabbed a pair of garden scissors and some iodine and told a coworker that he was going to cut the tails off the kittens, the arrest report said.

The coworker told Reid,68, not to do it and that the owner of the kittens, who is the wife of the man Reid was arguing with, had done nothing to deserve retaliation, according to the deputies.

Reid replied, “He wanted her to look at those cats and think of him,” the report said.

He then drove to the barn where the kittens were and got out of the truck. When he returned to the vehicle, he was holding four kitten tails, according to the affidavit. He told his coworker that he lost the fifth tail.

A veterinarian examined the animals and told deputies that when kittens have their tails docked, it is done when they are three to five days old and a local anesthetic is used along with a stitch to close the wound.

Reid improperly docked the kittens’ tails because they were too old, no anesthetic was used and the wound was not stitched, the report said.

Deputies arrested Reid Monday on an animal cruelty charge.