Man who shot cats says he's sorry

Jon Lawler says he's sorry.

Reviled by many for using cats to train his hunting dog, Lawler, 19, is facing jail time after pleading guilty to two counts of animal cruelty.

"I am sorry for what I've done, for the people I've hurt out there," he said from the Flathead County jail on Wednesday. "If there was a way to repay society, I'd do it right away."

Lawler admits he took two cats from a family that advertised to give them to good homes.

"I took two cats up in the mountains, about a mile," he said. To train his Walker hound, Faith, to hunt mountain lions, he turned the cats loose and let the dog tree them. Then he shot them out of the tree.

"In a sense, it is animal cruelty," although he says they died instantly and did not suffer.

Lawler said he got the idea from other cougar hunters.

He never expected to be called heartless or a cat killer, he said.

"I've got 18 letters saying I'm a bad man," he said. The letters are intended to affect the sentence Lawler will receive when he appears Friday before Justice of the Peace David Ortley. His wife has written one to counter them, he said.

Lawler said his wife is on his mind as he sits in jail. She's pregnant.

"We're starting to lose everything, little by little," he said.

He's starting his own construction business and has a job waiting to build an addition on a home.

"That's going to put us through the winter," he said.

Lawler said he understands why his actions upset people and says he will never again train his dog with cats.

He has gotten phone calls from people who were "frying mad" and listened to speculation that his behavior is the gateway action to serial killing.

He doesn't agree with that, but he has reconsidered what he did.

"At first, I thought no harm, no foul," he said.

But he admits he lied to the owners of the cats he sacrificed.

"In the Christianity I come from, that's not acceptable. I'm sorry to just everybody affected, including myself for showing that behavior," he said.

"I know I'm at the mercy of the law," he said. "I'd ask the community to pray for me, possibly."

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com