Veterinarian charged with animal cruelty after video surfaces of cat exam in Alabama
An Alabama veterinarian has been charged with animal cruelty after a video shared online shows him hitting a cat in an exam room.
An investigation into Dr. Richard Timothy Logan, a veterinarian at Andrews Avenue Animal Hospital in Ozark, began after the video was posted on social media earlier this week.
The video sparked outrage in the southeastern Alabama town and led to Logan’s arrest Thursday night, according to the Ozark Police Department.
The video shows Logan punching the cat, slamming its head into the exam room table and picking the cat up by its collar before dropping it. The cat shown in the video, which police say was filmed in November, “is alive and doing better with its owner.”
Witnesses also gave their accounts of the incident before Logan’s arrest, police said.
Separate photos shared on social media, showing a cat with injuries to its face, were from an undetermined date prior to when the video was filmed, according to the police department.
Earlier this week, protesters gathered outside the animal hospital calling for action against the veterinarian, the Dothan Eagle reported.
“We’re hoping for awareness, first of all, of animal abuse and we’re hoping that Dr. Logan will lose his license,” cat owner Rhonda Eller told the newspaper. “There should not be veterinarians that don’t love animals and care for animals. Obviously, they should choose a different profession.”
The Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medicine is conducting its own investigation into Logan, police said.
Logan’s attorney, David Harrison, told WTVW that people are destroying Harrison’s good reputation.
“I have instructed Dr. Logan to file a lawsuit against all who have smeared lies on social media. Facebook is not a court of law,” Harrison told the TV station.
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