WARNING: This post contains disturbing information regarding an act of egregious cruelty to cats. There are no graphic images.
On February 27, 2025, three now-former employees at Jayco RV in Elkhart County, Indiana, shoved two live cats into a microwave box, placed that box into a trash compactor, and used the compactor to crush them to death.
Despite the sheer brutality of these actions, the Elkhart County prosecuting attorney decided to drop all charges against the perpetrators. The shocking decision was made with the claim that the former employees’ actions are not animal cruelty under Indiana law. To say this is ludicrous and unacceptable is a profound understatement.
Please join Alley Cat Allies and people throughout Indiana in calling for justice for these cats, whose lives were taken cruelly, painfully, and senselessly. Take action now: contact the Elkhart County prosecutor and commissioners and demand the immediate refiling of cruelty charges.
When you take action, you’ll send the following letter:
I am writing to express my strong objection to the recent decision not to file criminal charges against the three Jayco RV former employees who forced two live cats into a trash compactor to be brutally crushed to death. To determine that crushing cats alive is in any way a humane form of euthanasia and not an act of egregious cruelty is ludicrous. I ask that you reverse this decision immediately, pursue charges, and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.
The precedent set with this decision will have a widespread negative impact on your community by signaling to would-be animal abusers that cruelty to cats is acceptable and will go unpunished. A cat is a living, feeling being who does not deserve to be painfully and brutally killed simply for existing on a property.
People in your community have made it clear where they stand on this matter, and it is with the cats and against those who horrifically kill them. I also believe the former Jayco RV employees responsible were not in any way justified, and that the sheer brutality of their actions does not match the determination that prolonged physical pain was not caused or that the cats’ suffering was not intended.
It is difficult to fathom the magnitude of the cats’ terror as they were shoved into a dark microwave box, and as they heard and then felt the relentless walls of a loud machine close in around them. Trash compactors do not typically move quickly. To say what these cats endured is horrific and disturbing is a profound understatement. There is nothing quick or painless about it.
Furthermore, the link between acts of cruelty toward animals and child abuse, domestic violence, and adverse mental health and community health outcomes is well established. Research has found that violence against animals is predictive of, and often co-occurring with, violence against humans. To protect us all, animals and people, it is critical to enforce animal cruelty laws. I believe that dropping the charges is a risk to your community.
Again, I urge the immediate refiling of charges against the former Jayco RV employees who killed these two cats. I stand for justice and for humane standards that protect cats and us all.