A Mason City man who was accused of throwing a cat into a river earlier this year is being fined $100 dollars. Sixty-nine-year-old William Hill was originally charged with first-offense animal torture, but prosecutors later reduced the charge to abandonment of an animal, a simple misdemeanor, as part of a plea deal with Hill.
Mason City police say Hill threw a gym bag containing his own cat into the Winnebago River on March 21st. Two people who witnessed the incident, went down to the river and found a live cat in the bag. Hill surrendered to authorities three days later. He was sentenced in Cerro Gordo County court on Tuesday.
The cat was later adopted by a St. Paul Minnesota man.
(Reporting by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)