Two Wal-Mart employees in Indiana are in trouble because they followed their boss’s order and killed a stray cat that they couldn’t rid themselves of from a storage trailer. They’ve been charged with “federal animal cruelty.”

Unless there are circumstances (torture or something) that are unrevealed in this story, I don’t understand why this is a problem. How is this any different than eliminating a rat from your attic? Or moles from your yard? Why can’t people or businesses take their own action to eliminate a pest from their property?

I suppose they could have called animal control, but would they have come? And wouldn’t they have probably euthanized the cat anyway, if they did come? Why does government have to be the one to do it when responsible citizens are perfectly capable of doing it themselves?

Why are people allowed to slaughter their livestock, or hunt rabbits on their property, but they can’t kill a stray cat?