Man who stabbed therapy cat charged with felony animal cruelty

A man accused of slashing, stabbing and bashing Scatt, the beloved white-and-brown cat of a White Center church, could go to state prison for up to a year and a half if convicted, prosecutors said today.

That's because in addition to filing a felony animal-cruelty charge against 47-year-old Tracy A. Clark, King County prosecutors also took the unusual step of tacking on a deadly-weapon enhancement to the charge. That would add an automatic six months to any sentence he receives.

Prosecutors here have done that before in animal-cruelty cases, but none could immediately name a specific recent case, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

Without the weapons enhancement, the animal cruelty charge carries a sentence of up to a year.

Clark remains in the King County Jail with bail set at $50,000. Arraignment was set for May 6.

Scatt was still in an animal hospital today recovering from severe knife wounds and broken ribs. But Pasado's Safe Haven, a Sultan-based animal-protection organization that has rallied for Scatt's care, reported that vets were optimistic he would pull through.

"We have every paw crossed that this little guy will make it," the group said in a fundraising plea to its supporters.

Scatt had lived at the Cross Church in White Center for about a decade after he showed up on the doorstep and refused to leave. Over the years he had become a fixture and a "therapy cat" for men who live at the church while trying to kick drugs and alcohol.

On Sunday, though, the church's Men's Ministry Leader, Michael Stinnette, found the cat severely wounded in the parking lot, court documents say. One of the gashes was 7 inches long.

Stinnette told police that Clark, one of the rehab residents, had bragged to another resident that he had "gutted" the cat, the documents say.

Clark had already packed his belongings and left the church, but police found him on the street the next day and arrested him, the court papers say. They found the knife on him, they said.

Clark allegedly told police that Scatt had attacked him first, so he threw the cat against a wall and knifed it. He showed the deputies scratches on his arm.

Clark, whose last known address was in Vancouver, Wash., has prior convictions for drug possession, eluding police, assault and drunken driving, prosecutors said. First-degree animal cruelty was made a felony in Washington after three teens in Bellevue tied up, beat and strangled Pasado, a beloved old donkey at Kelsey Creek Farm park, in 1992.

Satterberg said that Scatt's stabbing is "exactly the kind of case we had in mind when we asked for changes to the law."

"We know from case studies that many offenders who exhibit cruelty toward animals escalate from their violence and direct it toward people."

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com