A Washington state woman was awarded $125,000 after her pet cat was accused of repeatedly trespassing in a neighborhood.
Anna Danieli’s tabby cat called Miska received more than 30 violations and fines worth more than $30,000 before she reached the settlement with King County and the City of Bellevue.
Officials had accused the cat of terrorising other pets, killing animals and roaming freely in the area.
“This case was about the unjustified and incredible prosecution of a domestic house cat in Bellevue,” said Ms Danieli’s lawyer Jon Zimmerman.
“This was really an historic settlement involving a cat in the state of Washington.”
At one point the cat was taken away from her owners by animal control officials, and her lawyers said in her 2019 lawsuit that some of the complaints had been made by an animal control manager who lived in the same neighborhood.
“Miss Danieli didn’t even know this individual, who had been the manager of animal control, this individual in her neighborhood had actually been filling these complaints until later on in the case,” said Mr Zimmerman.
A spokesperson for the City of Bellevue said that it was committed to “improving our policies.”
“While this was a unique situation for the City of Bellevue, we are hopeful that our updates to city code – regarding civil offenses involving animals – will help ensure that future scenarios are resolved earlier and more clearly so pet owners and their neighbors can live without disruption,” Brad Harwood told Fox13 Seattle.
