WARNING: This article contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers.
Calgary police are investigating a disturbing allegation of animal abuse in the city’s southeast.
Officers were called to the 6200 block of 17 Avenue S.E. just after 9 p.m. Tuesday for reports that someone was beating a cat with a baseball bat.
When they arrived on scene, police found the cat had died.
Officers seized evidence from the scene, including a baseball bat, and took one person into custody.
The Calgary Police Service charged Wayne Ogden Huston, 63, with one count of killing, maiming, wounding or poisoning a domestic cat, and one count of unlawfully causing pain or suffering.
He is scheduled to appear in court on July 31.
Police said he was the cat’s owner.
A neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said she witnessed the incident and described it as the worst thing she’s ever seen.
“The gentleman next door came out calling his kitty and I just pointed out the kitty to him and… the next thing you know the bat came down,” the neighbour said.
“It’s going to be a nightmare I’ll have for life.”
— With files from Nathan Taylor