Police Say Man Fed Cats to His Pit Bulls
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Thu Sep 20, 05:53 PM
A man captured neighborhood cats and kittens and fed them live to his pit bulls, authorities said Thursday. Tye Hilmo, 21, was charged Thursday with aggravated cruelty to animals.
Hilmo was already in jail on drug, firearm and probation violation charges, Gwinnett County sheriff's spokeswoman Stacey Bourbonnais said.
The new warrant charges that Hilmo "did give injured live cats and kittens to his pit bull dogs and let the pit bulls kill the already injured cats and kittens. Hilmo would capture and injure neighborhood cats for this purpose."
He was arrested Sept. 10 after investigators serving a search warrant on his house found guns and two pounds of marijuana, Bourbonnais said. He has been jailed since then.
Authorities found the bodies of two kittens near Hilmo's residence. Bourbonnais said they also found a gruesome image on Hilmo's cell phone: a picture of one of his pit bulls and one of the mauled, dead kittens, and beneath picture a caption that says "Good Dog."
"It's pretty disturbing," Bourbonnais said.
The initial tip about Hilmo indicated he may be feeding kittens and cats to his dogs to prepare the dogs for fighting, but no dogfighting charges have been leveled against Hilmo, Bourbonnais said.
Sheriff's officials could not immediately say whether Hilmo has an attorney.
