2 Wal-Mart Employees Charged in Cat Killing

Two Wal-Mart employees have been charged with felony animal cruelty after authorities said they followed a manager’s orders to shoot and kill a stray cat.

The men, both assistant managers at the store, told police the manager had ordered them to get rid of the animal, which was living in a storage trailer behind their store.

Christopher Anderson, 29, and Jeffrey Hardin, 21, repeatedly shot the cat with a pellet gun from the store until it died, a sheriff’s report said.

Wal-Mart conducted an investigation and said it had fired three employees over the incident.

The company did not name the employees.

“We were sickened by this cruelty,” Kevin D. Miller, regional vice president for the Arkansas-based retailer, said Thursday.

The company said it planned to donate $10,000 to be shared by the Vanderburgh County and Warrick County humane societies in Indiana.

Anderson and Hardin were arrested and released after a court appearance Wednesday.

A truck driver who reported the incident said he saw store employees placing what he believed to be the body of an animal in shrink wrap.

Store manager Darrel Weitzel told deputies he had told some of his employees to get a gun and get rid of the cat after attempts to coax it from the trailer failed, according to the sheriff’s report. Weitzel was not charged.