Kitten’s ordeal in a bong halted by deputies

OMAHA — A Nebraska man who stuffed his girlfriend’s kitten into a makeshift bong and filled it with marijuana smoke says that he had done it before and that it had calmed the kitten down.

Acea Schomaker, 20, of Lincoln said Tuesday that he never intended to hurt the kitten, 6-month-old Shadow.

He says the kitten would bite and scratch him and his girlfriend but he didn’t want to discipline it by swatting it or squirting it with water.

Schomaker says he put the kitten in the bong three times over the last week, which made the animal “act like a stoned person.”

He says he knows now that what he did was wrong.

Lancaster County sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic disturbance call Sunday alleged they saw Schomaker smoking marijuana through a piece of garden hose attached to a duct-taped, plastic glass box in which the kitten had been stuffed.

“This cat was just dazed,” Sgt. Andy Stebbing said.

“She was on the front seat of the cop car, wrapped in a blanket, and never moved all the way to the Humane Society,” Stebbing said.

Shadow was timid but in good condition at the Capital Humane Society, executive director Bob Downey said.

Schomaker, who is unemployed, and his girlfriend, Marissa Vieux, 22, each were ticketed for misdemeanor animal cruelty.