Felony Cruelty Charge for Man Who ‘Whacked’ Trapped Raccoon and Left Injured Cat Without Care for 3 Months

During the move the younger woman noticed that a black cat belonging to Rainey had an injured front paw. The injury looked severe enough that she worried about the cat’s welfare–and contacted sheriff’s deputies and the Humane Society. The 70-year-old woman told deputies she’d noticed the cat’s injury three days earlier, but distanced herself from the cat or Rainey, saying he cared for his own cats. The black cat wasn’t the only one there.

Rainey told deputies he’d had Boomer the cat two years, and noticed its injury three months earlier, but never took Boomer to a veterinarian even though it was “hopping” around the yard. The cat’s front paw “was constantly tucked upward into its body and would not touch the ground,” the sheriff’s report states. A Humane Society officer detected clear signs of inflammation even though attempts to capture the cat were not successful. The deputy and the officer left cat traps behind and instructions to Rainey to call the moment he might notice that any animal was trapped. The officer gave him his cell number. Rainey’s decision not to seek medical care for the cat was concerning enough that the deputy started an investigation.

Five days later–on Sept. 2–deputies returned to the property to check on the traps. As they did so, they noticed Rainey carrying the trap toward the shed. As soon as Rainey saw the cops he turned back and returned the trap to its previous position. But the deputies noticed he had blood on himself.




When a deputy asked him why, Rainey said he had just “whacked a coon.”

The deputy asked him to repeat himself. Rainey did so, saying he’d killed a raccoon.

“Raccoons are protected by various rules administered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,” the University of Florida’s Extension website states. “It is legal to kill a nuisance raccoon if you hold a valid hunting license when it is done by a humane method. The use of poisons and leghold or body gripping traps are not legal without a permit and are not recommended for raccoons. Check local ordinances before using any lethal control method. Never discharge a firearm inside city limits or in residential areas.”The raccoon had been entrapped. The deputy asked Rainey why he’d killed the animal. He said his leg was caught and he couldn’t get out, so he killed him, and threw the animal in the woods. The deputy and Rainey located the carcass, and the deputy took possession of it, both to check for rabies and send it for a necropsy at the University of Florida. That revealed that the raccoon had died from a projectile on the right side, which fragmented inside. The raccoon, in other words, had been shot. “The trajectory of the projectile was right to left and front to back,” the Florida Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories report stated. “There was a depression fracture of the top of the skull and fracture of the base of the skull. There was hemorrhage within the cranial vault. The depression fracture (top of the skull) and fracture of the base of the skull were due to blunt force trauma.”




The report concluded that the projectile was first first, followed by the blunt force, with death resulting from a combination of the two.

Meanwhile Boomer had been trapped and sent to a veterinarian for treatment at Flagler Humane Society, where the cat underwent surgery. The vet there concluded that the cat had needlessly suffered from the untreated injury which, left untreated longer, could have resulted in amputation.

The sheriff’s office filed two felony animal cruelty counts against Rainey. Last Thursday (Oct. 28), the State Attorney’s Office filed a charging information, but dropped the charge regarding the cat and kept the third degree felony charge of cruelty regarding the death of the raccoon. Rainey was booked at the Flagler County jail Friday evening and released on his own recognizance the next day. It was his fourth arrest in the last six years. Previous arrests were over domestic violence, drugs and disorderly conduct charges.