The Jayco Cats have gone national. A North Carolina-based animal rights group is collecting signatures urging Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker to refile charges.
Animal Victory, a North Carolina-based nonprofit, typically asks its 200,000 newsletter subscribers to email judges in animal cruelty cases around the country and request harsher sentences. But here the group is focusing on a prosecutor in Vicki Becker. She initially charged three Jayco RV workers with felony animal cruelty for killing two cats in a plant trash compactor, then quickly withdrew the charges after they drew media attention.
Becker has said a Jayco vice president denied saying the workers had acted in the company’s best interest by killing the cats in the compactor. She initially called this a scrivener’s error, meaning it’s more clerical and doesn’t affect the thrust of the case, but then she pointed to multiple Indiana laws that she says prohibit her from refiling.
Animal Victory says that in their six years of existence they’ve collected over 5.5 million signatures in 336 cases. They’ve scored what they called victories 66 times, or 20% of the cases. Animal Victory Co-founder Janelle Babington says it’s worth the effort.
“When a judge or an attorney gets our petition with 20,000-some odd signatures on it, they will think twice about dismissing the case," Babington says. "They know the public is watching. They know that we’re going to create outrage, just as we’re doing right now.”
Over 18,000 people had signed the Jayco cats petition as of Tuesday afternoon.
Becker declined WVPE's interview request. She released a response letter she sent to Animal Victory's attorney. In it, Becker says Indiana law doesn't let her criminally charge someone for killing feral or wild cats that have damaged property, as she says happened here.
Becker wrote, "I am not permitted to ignore parts of the law to accomplish what might be the more popular course of action."
