By: Hannah Jespersen. Sierra Smith, and Emily Mitchell

Social media is the reason law enforcement was called to investigate a possible animal cruelty incident at Hunt’s bridge, a popular teen hangout last weekend. Pictures posted to Instagram Friday, March 29, showed a cat hung by its tail at Hunt’s bridge.

The Instagram picture, with a caption including the hashtag #killing, brought the incident to the attention of teachers, who then reported it to the sheriff’s office. They too believed that the wording implied that the students killed the cat. Deputy Bill Ayers concluded the cat “had been deceased for some time,” which assured law enforcement that the posters of the pictures were not the people responsible for the death of cat. The Cass County Sheriffs office is not pushing to press charges for the picture.

There are “no codes to protect stray animals,” said Ayers. Since no owners of the cat have been identified or have come forward, the officers are limited in what they are able to do.

Following this incident, deceased carcarses of a cat and a deer were found in the school parking lot. According to Ayers, the school is still deciding whether or not to press trespassing charges, which would result in juvenile court.

Ayers said the names associated with the posts are not being released because the incident is considered a simple misdemeanor. Despite the questionable judgement used by the posters of the offensive pictures, Ayers explained that using social media to post of photos with dead animals is not in itself a crime.

At least one person who viewed the Instagram post reported it as inappropriate. According to the Instagram website’s help page, viewers should flag pictures as inappropriate if they are “in violation of the following: nudity, prohibited or illegal content, private and confidential information, violence and gore, or the promotion and glorification of self-harm.”