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Did Dr. Kristen Lindsey, Texas Vet, Believe The Cat She Killed Had Rabies?

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 14:07 PST, Sep 15, 2015

Dr. Kristen Lindsey, the Texas veterinarian formerly employed at Washington Animal Clinic, was never prosecuted after posting an exceptionally controversial photograph to her Facebook account this past summer. While animal lovers demanded that the prosecutor charge Kristen Lindsey with animal cruelty, a Class A misdemeanor under Texas penal code 42.092, the District Attorney stated, according to Huffington Post, that “for a veterinarian to face charges under Texas law, prosecutors would have to prove either that she killed a cat in a cruel manner or that she killed a cat kept as a pet without the owner’s consent.”

The Texas law states officially that a person commits an act of animal cruelty “if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” either “tortures an animal or in a cruel manner kills or causes serious bodily injury to an animal” or “without the owner’s effective consent, kills, administers poison to, or causes serious bodily injury to an animal.” So, of course, advocates for punishing Lindsey for what they allege constitutes animal cruelty are enraged that Lindsey will face no charges. They cite the definition in the Texas law that says that the charge includes “any stray or feral cat or dog, and a wild living creature previously captured.” The vocal animal advocates don’t understand how the second aspect of the Texas animal cruelty doesn’t apply to Dr. Lindsey. If the cat was actually presumed a feral or stray cat as the Facebook post stated, even a veterinarian would not have had the right to kill the animal, they say.

The Colorado State graduate lost her job after the photo went viral. The veterinary clinic where Lindsey work stated, “We are absolutely appalled, shocked, upset, and disgusted by the conduct,” adding, “We have parted ways with Ms. Lindsey. We do not allow such conduct and we condemn it in the strongest possible manner.”

Lindsey still faces possible punitive action by the Texas veterinary board. At its last meeting, according to Alley Cat Allies, the board announced that they found a violation in the case of the Brenham veterinarian. The board reportedly will wait until its October meeting to specify what violation or violations those were, as previously reported. Depending on Lindsey’s response to the board’s decision, new information might come to light and become public record. She may still end up seeing the inside of a courtroom over this, according to the TBVME’s literature.

Though Austin County District Attorney Travis J. Koehn stated, according to Huffington Post, that “Evidence is insufficient, based on the online photograph alone, to determine whether the animal was killed in a cruel manner,” Amy Hemsell, who lives in the same town as Lindsey and believes the cat in the photo was actually Tiger, a beloved pet from a farm near Lindsey’s home that Hemsell was the petsitter for. According to Hemsell, the cat’s body was never found, which presumably contributes to the lack of evidence in the case.

Lindsey reportedly claimed she shot the cat, because she believed that he had rabies and she wanted to protect her own animals, KXAN reported; however, Lindsey made no mention of the fears over rabies in her original social media post in which she stated, “The only good tomcat is one with an arrow through its head.”

Online, animal advocates have voiced their outrage, claiming the investigation was not complete enough, but could prosecutors be waiting to see if new information comes to light at the veterinary board meeting?

If Lindsey really did believe that the tomcat had rabies, as KXAN purports, these same animal advocates want to know why Dr. Kristen Lindsey, a trained and licensed veterinarian, did not use official procedures for disposing of the suspect rabid animal’s remains.

According to Section 97.3(b) of the Texas Administrative Code, Communicable Diseases, all positive cases of rabies must be reported. The public wants to know if Lindsey ever sent the cat’s remains in for testing, if what KXAN alleged is actually true. If Lindsey believed she was saving her own animals from rabies, did she follow protocol set forth by the State of Texas’ health department? It’s clear how any professional is supposed to handle suspected cases of rabies.

“The head of the suspect animal shall be separated from the body by a qualified person wearing personal protective equipment as soon as possible after the death of the animal. Only the head shall be submitted with the exception that whole bats and small rodents may be submitted. If only the brain is submitted rather than the entire head, the minimum tissue requirements for rabies testing are a complete transverse cross section of the brain stem and tissue from one of the following: cerebellum and/or hippocampus Submissions that do not meet these tissue requirements will be considered unsatisfactory due to a lack of sufficient material,” the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Zoonosis Control instructions states.

What do you think? Is it too late for prosecutors and investigators to re-examine the case against Kristen Lindsey or might the district attorney be waiting to see how Lindsey responds to whatever violation the Texas veterinary board will accuse her of?

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