Bobcat’s tail severed by construction crew at Tennessee wildlife rescue, lawsuit says
When Juniper Russo saw T’challa on the afternoon of Jan. 17, she said the rescued bobcat was in near perfect health. Less than 24 hours later, Russo reportedly found him in “severe pain and agony” in his backyard pen.
T’challa’s tail, she said, had been cut off.
Now Russo, director of For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is suing the contracting company that was reportedly doing construction work on the property when the cat was maimed. In a complaint filed Tuesday, Dec. 7, Russo said her neighbors saw construction workers that morning playing loud music and “laughing and hooting like they were having a party.”
T’challa has brain damage from an injury when he was a kitten and could not return to the wild, according to the rescue group’s Facebook page. He was affectionately nicknamed “potato” for his lack of intelligence and is known for having an unexplained affinity for bulbs of fennel.
According to the lawsuit, T’challa’s severed tail was never found. Russo’s lawyer, Robin R. Flores, said they think someone took it as a trophy, and he had to have surgery to repair the damaged nerve endings.
“It’d be like cutting your arm off and leaving it,” Flores said of the bobcat’s wound.
Russo declined to comment in a statement to McClatchy News on Thursday, Dec. 9, saying the incident was “painful to talk about” and deferring to her lawyer.
Tornadoes and a baby bobcat
According to the complaint, For Fox Sake is a nonprofit wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center regulated by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture. As director, Russo has a permit to possess wild animals for educational purposes.
She runs the rescue out of her backyard in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
On April 13, 2020, severe thunderstorms in southeast Tennessee unleashed at least seven tornadoes, News Channel 9 reported. At least nine people died and 150 buildings were damaged as a result, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Russo’s house and the wildlife rescue were among the structures “catastrophically damaged,” her attorney said in the complaint.
Flores told McClatchy News that Russo repaired the animal pens herself because insurance wouldn’t cover it. But the home also needed to be rebuilt, and Apex Restoration DKI was called in to help. Apex Restoration is a contracting company that specializes in “emergency disaster cleanup and property restoration,” according to its website.
A representative from the company did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Thursday, Dec. 9.
According to the complaint, Russo and her family did not live in the house while it was being repaired, and the contractor was in “complete control” of the property from April 2020 to February 2021.
About a month after the tornadoes hit, For Fox Sake received a newborn bobcat named T’challa for rehabilitation, Russo’s lawyer said in court documents.
According to the rescue group’s Facebook page, T’challa was “dropped by a hawk as a newborn” and “turned out ‘special’ as a result.” At 4 months old, the veterinarian reportedly determined he could not be released into the wild.
“He can’t hunt, has no fear of humans, and makes some, well, questionable decisions,” the rescue group said in an October Facebook post about the bobcat. “As a result, he became an education ambassador rather than being released to the wild.”
In the lawsuit, Flores said “T’challa became tame and effectively Russo’s pet.” The pair have since emotionally bonded to one another, he said.
‘Someone cut the cat’s tail off’
According to the complaint, T’challa’s pen passed a USDA inspection on Dec. 15, 2020 — just a few weeks before he was injured.
Russo went to check on the animals at 4 p.m. on Jan. 17, the lawsuit states. She returned around noon the following day and reportedly found “the back gate open, and construction equipment, tools and a stereo in the backyard” with no one around.
T’challa, meanwhile, was in his pen severely injured, Russo’s laywer said.
“This animal was treated barbarically,” he told McClatchy News.
The next door neighbors reportedly told Russo that the loud music and noise was coming from the backyard around 10:30 a.m. that morning. Russo subsequently called the police and the general manager at Apex Restoration.
The general manager arrived first and called a member of the construction crew, according to the complaint.
“Someone cut the cat’s tail off and it better not be one of you guys,” he reportedly said.
An officer with the Chattanooga Police Department arrived shortly thereafter and looked at T’challa’s pen, Russo’s attorney said. The officer reportedly did not find anything that would have caused the cat’s injury.
T’challa’s vet also determined the injury seemed to be a “deliberate act” caused by a “clean and fast cut,” the lawsuit states.
The general manager asked Russo after the incident if she wanted the crew to not return to the property — but warned that it would take an additional four months to complete the restoration, according to the complaint. Her lawyer said Russo “felt that she had no choice but to allow (them) to remain working on the property.”
Russo’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was exacerbated by the alleged injury to T’challa, according to the complaint, and it’s become difficult to use the bobcat as an education tool because the “cat is not in its natural condition.”
The lawsuit accuses Apex Restoration of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Russo is seeking at least $100,000 in damages for mental anguish as a result.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 6:17 PM.
