Date: Friday, June 23, 1995

MAULED GIRL'S LAWYER WANTS CAT KILLED 2-YEAR-OLD GETS 200 STITCHES AFTER ATTACK

An exotic jungle cat's controversial stay in Downers Grove may be over after his third victim, a 2-year-old girl, was hospitalized with gouges that required 200 stitches. On Thursday, an attorney who represents the injured girl's family demanded that Cabo, a jungle cat, be destroyed so that rabies tests can be performed. If Cabo's owner does not comply, Chicago attorney Richard Stavins said that the DuPage County state's attorney's office will seek a court order.

The Sunday afternoon incident served as a graphic reminder of how dangerous it can be to keep wild animals as pets. The jungle cat is a common wild animal in Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indochina, said Rodger Philips, lead keeper in the Brookfield Zoo mammal department. But unlike the common house cat, which it resembles, the jungle cat has not been tamed through thousands of years of domestic breeding. It grows to be somewhat larger than a common house cat. Cabo weighs 20 pounds, about the same as a large house cat. Being wild animals, jungle cats are "genetically bred to have a territory and protect a territory," Philips said. "If it feels its territory is being infringed upon, it's going to protect that territory."

That may explain why Cabo attacked when 2-year-old Alice Mintz ran out the back door while visiting her aunt, Sari Mintz, the cat's owner, in Downers Grove. Sari Mintz had the cat tethered to an overhead line in her back yard at 4612 Lee St. " When nobody was looking, the kid ran out the back door into the back yard," said David Rechenmacher, Downers Grove Police Department spokesman. "Nobody actually observed it, but the cat attacked the child." The cat had apparently also attacked the child when she was an infant, authorities said.

In order to decrease the chances of permanent scarring, the girl received more stitches than were absolutely necessary, Rechenmacher said. It was unclear Thursday afternoon whether Alice, the daughter of Judy and Bobby Mintz of Chicago, would be released from Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, said Stavins, who was issuing all statements on behalf of the family. "I'm sure the aunt feels terrible about it," Stavins said. "We're trying not to have a family feud here."

For now, Cabo is under observation in a veterinarian's office in Iowa City, where he originally was purchased from a breeder, Rechenmacher said. Sari Mintz will not return the cat to Downers Grove, Rechenmacher said. Rather, he said, she hopes to place Cabo with a shelter or another suitable owner.

Mintz, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, did not respond to telephone calls requesting comment Thursday. Police ticketed Mintz for possessing a dangerous animal after Sunday's attack, Rechenmacher said. Mintz must appear in court and may face a fine of up to $500, he said. This is not the first time Cabo has landed his owner in court. In August, a 10-year-old girl walking through Mintz's back yard fell prey to Cabo. Two men had to pry the cat off of the girl's back, said Ardith Baker, manager of the DuPage County Animal Control Department.

After that incident, Mintz was ticketed for failing to confine Cabo, allowing an animal to molest someone and failing to have a permit, Baker said. Mintz appeared in court in October and paid $150 in fines, according to court records. In March 1994, Cabo also bit one of Mintz's friends, a woman who tried to pet the animal through an open car window, Baker said. Baker said she also was told that Cabo had attacked Alice Mintz once before, sometime in 1993. Illinois law designates a jungle cat as a dangerous animal, said Patrick Hogan, Illinois Agriculture Department spokesman. But a person may own a jungle cat as a pet as long as the owner has a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hogan said. Mintz had such a license, he said.

Even so, Sari Mintz is liable for her pet's conduct under Illinois law, according to Jeffrey Whitcomb, a Chicago attorney who has handled animal injury cases. "You're in control of the animal," Whitcomb said. "It's your responsibility to make sure the animal doesn't bite somebody on its own initiative." In the case of a wild animal kept as a pet, Whitcomb said, the owner's duty is heightened because of the increased risk. This isn't the first case of unusual animals being kept as pets in the Chicago area. Just last month, Chicago animal control officers removed a 65-pound mountain lion from a South Side garage where it was being kept.

Date: Saturday, June 24, 1995

JUNGLE CAT GETS DEATH SENTENCE RABIES IS FEARED IN GIRL'S MAULING

A pet jungle cat that badly mauled a 2-year-old Chicago girl should be put to death and examined for rabies, a DuPage County judge ruled Friday. At the request of the DuPage County state's attorney's office, Judge Bonnie Wheaton granted an emergency motion that Cabo the cat be decapitated so that his brain could be tested for rabies.

But late Friday, it remained to be seen whether the animal's owner, who is the mauling victim's aunt, would comply with the court order in time to save the girl from the painful ordeal of rabies shots. Doctors were to begin the shots Friday if the cat's brain could not be tested. "They may have to give her the initial shot today," DuPage County Animal Control Warden Jean Hessenius said Friday afternoon. "We're running out of time here." The outcome remained unknown Friday evening. Cabo was in the care of an Iowa City, Iowa, veterinarian who had cared for the feline in the past. Kot Flora, disease prevention manager for the Johnson County Public Health Department in Iowa City, said her office ordered the cat confined to the veterinarian's office until July 3 for rabies observation. She said she did not believe her office had the authority to enforce the Illinois court order.

The cat's death sentence came despite a clemency plea from the cat owner's attorney, Frank Howard, who wrote that Cabo already had been been inoculated against rabies. But the judge appeared to be swayed by the testimony of a veterinarian who said an inoculation designed for house cats might not be effective for an exotic jungle cat, which is classified as a dangerous animal under state law. According to the veterinarian, the cat would have to be killed and its brain examined to be sure it was free of rabies. Assistant State's Atty. Augusta Clarke told Wheaton that the rabies test had to be done immediately to spare the victim, Alice Mintz, the additional pain of a 10-week course of multiple shots, the treatment for rabies. Without an opportunity to examine the cat's brain and be certain it was not rabid, Clarke said, doctors would be forced to begin administering the shots Friday. Alice's mother, Judy Mintz of Chicago, spoke publicly Friday for the first time about the mauling her daughter suffered Sunday afternoon.

The incident occurred in the back yard of the Downers Grove house where Sari Mintz, Alice's aunt and Cabo's owner, lives. Judy Mintz testified at the hearing that she and her husband, Billy, were visiting Sari Mintz and Sari Mintz's fiance, Tom Harmon, on Sunday to celebrate Father's Day. While Sari Mintz and Harmon were out on an errand, Judy Mintz said, she and Alice waited in the back yard. Cabo was tethered to an overhead line that allowed him to roam the yard, according to a police report. Judy Mintz said Alice was out of sight for a moment, and when she next looked, "The cat was on top of her, biting her." Judy Mintz's attorney, Richard Stavins, said Judy Mintz did not realize the danger her daughter was in around the jungle cat until it was too late. She thought the cat was no more dangerous than any other domestic cat, he said, despite an incident months earlier in which Cabo bit Alice once lightly on the neck. Alice was released from the hospital Thursday, Stavins said, and her stitches were removed Friday.

Date: Monday, June 26, 1995

TOT'S PARENTS WON'T SEEK CAT'S DEATH

Parents of a 2-year-old girl mauled by her aunt's jungle cat will not pursue charges against the cat's owner for refusing to turn over the animal to determine whether it has rabies, their attorney announced Sunday. A DuPage County judge on Friday ordered the cat be put to death and examined for rabies, but the cat had not been turned over Sunday, said the attorney, Richard Stavins. "If the cat is that important to (its owners, Sari Mintz and Tom Harmon, of Downers Grove) then for the sake of family harmony, we will ask the state's attorney not to pursue legal remedy further on behalf of Alice and to not pursue destruction of the cat," Alice's parents, Judy and Bill Mintz, said in a prepared statement.

But the Dupage County state's attorney's office may still pursue the case. If Mintz and Harmon refuse to turn the cat over for an autopsy, they could be held in contempt of court, Stavins said. They could not be reached for comment Sunday. Alice Mintz began receiving rabies shots Saturday and will have her 200 stitches removed under general anesthesia Monday at Hoffman Estates Medical Center, Stavins said. Judy Mintz testified in DuPage County Court Friday that she, her husband and Alice were at a Father's Day celebration at Sari Mintz's Downers Grove house June 18. Cabo, the cat, was tethered to an overhead line that allowed it to roam the back yard, when it attacked the child, according to police reports. The cat reportedly bit Alice Mintz lightly on the neck months earlier, Stavins said. The cat also attacked a 10-year-old girl who walked through the yard in August, and it bit a friend of Sari Mintz in March 1994 when the woman tried to pet the animal, according to Ardith Baker, manager of the DuPage County Animal Control Department.

The cat had received rabies shots, but a veterinarian testified at the Friday hearing that shots designed for domestic cats might not be effective for an exotic jungle cat. Sari Mintz has a federal license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to own the cat. The veterinarian said the cat would have to be killed and its brain examined to determine whether or not it had rabies. The jungle cat, which is a common wild animal in Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indochina, has not been tamed like the common house cat through thousands of years of domestic breeding, said Rodger Philips, lead keeper in the Brookfield Zoo's mammal department.

Date: Tuesday, June 27, 1995

STRANGE LOYALTIES EMERGE FROM CAT'S ATTACK ON CHILD

First, kill the cat. Today. Extradite the cat from Iowa, cut off its head for diagnostic purposes and try to spare 2- year-old Alice Mintz the additional pain of rabies vaccinations on top of the 200 stitches she's already had to endure at the claws and fangs of this wild creature that was masquerading (though poorly) as a domestic cat. Then get another court order to force the family at the heart of this story to appear on "Jerry Springer" so we can begin to get to the bottom of the strange sense of human loyalties and animal stewardship that guides them. It's hard to believe the beast is still alive nine days after mauling Alice in the backyard of her aunt's Downers Grove home. Simple concern for the child, not to mention concern for the next person to cross paths with the terrible tabby, would have dictated it be destroyed immediately after the attack and given the autopsy necessary to determine if it is rabid despite having had vaccinations designed for common house cats.

But since owner Sari Mintz's concern for the child took a back seat to her concern for Cabo, her 20-pound jungle cat, the judicial death warrant issued Friday ought to have done the trick. Yet the cat lives, safe, for the moment, at an Iowa veterinarian's office, while its owner remains cleverly out of communication on a business trip. This cat is no mere hisser and scratcher. It makes Snoopy's nemesis, the Cat Next Door, look like Hello Kitty. The Father's Day incident was at least the fourth time that it attacked a human being; the second time it had gone after Alice Mintz. Sari Mintz, who is the manager of public relations for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, went on an errand with her fiance, leaving her brother Bill Mintz, his wife Judy and their children at their home, where Cabo was tethered to a backyard line. The parents let Alice out of their sight in the backyard for a moment-not a very careful move given the cat's history-and the attack occurred.

Sari Mintz's first reaction upon returning to the carnage allegedly was to blame the parents for being negligent. This spin on the story was not wholly without merit, but it did overlook that DuPage County Animal Control officials had designated the animal as dangerous after the earlier attacks, which meant it was to be caged when Mintz was absent. And, of course, there is always the fact that she had a dangerous wild animal as a pet. Look, I love animals, but this fascination some people have with keeping house with pit bulls, deadly snakes and such untamed and dangerous exotica as this Asian jungle cat is a hallmark of self-involvement and vanity, not the humane instinct. And when you violate nature, nature sometimes turns around and violates you.

To the pity we extend to Alice Mintz, who is at least temporarily disfigured and is facing more rabies vaccinations, we ought to add a bit of pity for Cabo-evil only in the context of a Downers Grove back yard where it never ought to have been. Pity but not mercy. Not while this girl is suffering. Mintz apparently anticipated this imperative and allegedly told both paramedics and emergency room personnel that Alice had been the victim of a dog attack. The girl's parents, who should have killed the cat on the spot if you ask me, astoundingly went along with this deception for about an hour, according to their attorney, Richard Stavins. Then they began to worry that the antibiotic treatment for cat bites might be different from that for dog bites (it's not, according to doctors at three area hospital emergency rooms, though Stavins says he's told it may be different for wild cats).

Now Alice's parents are asking the court to spare the life of the cat in exile "for the sake of family harmony." Stavins said they have done so because the series of rabies shots has already started. Mintz's attorney, meanwhile, reportedly says his client will abide by the "final decision" of the court, which, translated, seems to mean that she'll stall until Alice has had her rabies shots and the excuse for killing the cat has passed. Wonder what the studio audience will make of this style of family harmony? If Sari Mintz's strategy pays off, Cabo may end up in a cage or a zoo for the rest of its life. That's where it must now be, though not where it really belongs.

Date: Tuesday, June 27, 1995

OWNER WILL SURRENDER JUNGLE CAT

The owner of a pet jungle cat that mauled a 2-year-old girl will not defy a court order to have the animal put to death and examined for rabies, the owner's attorney said Monday. But according to a lawyer for the injured girl's family, the cat's owner-the girl's aunt-has disregarded the family's pleas to surrender the cat for rabies testing in hopes that their daughter could avoid more painful rabies shots. On Monday, attorneys for both sides in the case of Cabo the cat said the pet's owner, Downers Grove resident Sari Mintz, is out of town and has not yet been served with the judge's order, which was issued Friday. "Without a doubt, she would abide by any lawful court order," said Frank Howard, Sari Mintz's attorney.

Alice Mintz was attacked by the cat on June 18. "(Sari Mintz) would prefer not to have the cat killed. But she is not out there on the lam, and she is not trying to circumvent the court's orders." Howard said Sari Mintz and her fiance, Tom Harmon, have been out of town on business since Saturday and will not be back until Wednesday. Mintz is the spokeswoman for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority. He said Mintz may ask a judge to reconsider the decision to have the cat killed and tested for rabies, or she could appeal the judge's order. But Mintz would not defy the court's final decision, Howard said. "She is horrified by all of this," Howard said. "She feels terrible."

As doctors removed 200 stitches from Alice's face and head on Monday, an attorney for the girl's parents, Judy and Bill Mintz, said Sari Mintz has shown that she is unwilling to give up the cat, which is now undergoing observation in a veterinarian's office in Iowa City, Iowa. "Her actions speak louder than her words," the family's attorney, Richard Stavins, said during a news conference. Stavins said Alice received her first rabies shot over the weekend and will have several more shots before the end of the week. He said that because the shots have already started, the girl's parents, who live in Chicago, will not pursue further legal action. "The family decided to back off for the sake of family harmony," Stavins said. "They didn't want things to get any worse than they already were. They've opted to go the route of the rabies shots to ensure their daughter's safety and well-being."

Despite the family's stance on the cat, the DuPage County state's attorney's office intends to pursue the judge's order to have the animal killed and tested, said Nancy Wolfe, chief of the civil division for the state's attorney's office. Wolfe said the order will be served and that Sari Mintz could face charges of contempt of court if she does not turn over the cat. Officials with the DuPage County Animal Control Department said the fact that the cat is now in Iowa City, where it was originally purchased, should not affect how the order is enforced. Ardith Baker, manager of the animal control department, said her office has been in contact with authorities in Iowa. As soon as Sari Mintz agrees to turn over the cat, animal control officials in Iowa City will be able to kill the animal and conduct the rabies exam, Baker said.

According to Sari Mintz' attorney, the animal underwent similar periods of observation after three other incidents in which it attacked people. Those incidents include a previous attack Alice Mintz was bitten lightly on the neck several months ago. "(Sari Mintz) had been hopeful this time that there would be an alternative to putting the cat to sleep," Howard said. "That's why she sent it to Iowa City. After all, this child had been bitten before, and she did not develop rabies then." But after last week's attack, doctors determined that the severity of the wounds and their proximity to the girl's head required immediate testing to determine whether the cat had rabies, Baker said. DuPage County animal control officials said the attack on the child, and the animal's history, show that Cabo does not belong in anyone's back yard. "Aside from the rabies issue, I don't think anyone would disagree that this cat should be put down," Baker said. "This is not a nice animal. The world would be a better place without it."

Date: Thursday, June 29, 1995

OWNER SAYS SHE WILL SURRENDER EXOTIC CAT

On the face of it, the attack on a little girl by a pet exotic cat does not appear to have the makings of a morality play. But the actions of those involved in the incident have turned it into just that. Cabo, a jungle cat, bites a 2-year-old DuPage County girl so severely that she needs 200 stitches, and the owner of the cat, the girl's aunt, tells paramedics a dog did it. For a time the child's parents go along with the lie. Then, Cabo's owner, Sari Mintz, sends the cat off to Iowa City, out of reach of a judge's order to have it tested for rabies.

In the name of "family harmony," the girl's parents decline to pursue the matter legally and start their daughter on a series of shots to ward off rabies. Now Mintz may lose her job over her efforts to protect the cat. And she faces possible jail time if she doesn't turn the cat over to authorities Thursday. DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton ordered that the cat be turned over by 9 a.m. Thursday so that it could be killed for the rabies test. When Mintz showed up in a DuPage County court Wednesday afternoon, reporters asked: Is a cat more important than a child? "Had I believed for one moment that the cat did have rabies, I would have had the cat put down," Mintz told reporters as she fought back tears. "I love my niece. I do love this child. She's very, very important to me."

"We're disappointed by the court's ruling," said Mintz's attorney, Frank Howard. But Mintz added: "I am complying with the court." Mintz, manager of the Illinois Toll Highway Authority public-relations department, was placed on unapproved leave without pay for Monday and Tuesday after she did not show up for a conference in Washington, D.C. Mintz had said she was out of town on state business, thereby blocking efforts by authorities to serve her with papers that would force her to turn over her cat. Tollway officials said they are reviewing the case to decide whether she will face further discipline. Howard told Wheaton on Wednesday that Mintz hadn't known about the earlier court order because she was out of town. She had planned to attend the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association conference in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, however, the Toll Highway Authority issued a statement saying that Mintz did not check into the hotel where she had a reservation and did not attend the conference. Mintz agreed to reimburse the authority for her trip expenses. Mintz, 34, has worked for the state since 1986 and now earns $51,312 annually. The statement did not indicate where Mintz had been. Mintz didn't say, either. When asked, Howard interrupted her and told reporters: "It's nobody's business where she was at." Howard is the former chief counsel for the Toll Highway Authority, who resigned last year after he was accused of taking on outside legal work.

The DuPage County state's attorney's office wanted Wheaton to find Mintz in contempt of court for not complying with Friday's court order-a finding that could lead to time in jail. Instead, Wheaton said she would "give Ms. Mintz the benefit of the doubt." Howard told Wheaton that Mintz had been seeing a psychiatrist because of the stress this incident caused. Despite the trouble that Cabo has brought Mintz, she described the cat Wednesday for reporters as "loving and warm" and said he "is a house pet that sleeps on my pillow next to my face every night." When asked how she felt now that it was clear Cabo would be destroyed, Mintz said: "I'm devastated by it."

Cabo, who was tethered to an overhead line in Mintz's back yard, attacked Alice Mintz on Father's Day while the girl and her mother, Judy Mintz, were waiting for Sari Mintz and her fiance to return from an errand, Judy Mintz testified last week. Judy Mintz's husband is Sari Mintz's brother. Judy Mintz said the attack occurred during a brief moment when she was not watching Alice. But this was not the first time Cabo had attacked people. When Alice was an infant, Cabo inflicted a light wound on her neck, said Richard Stavins, who represents the girl's family. Sari Mintz also paid $150 in fines after Cabo attacked a 10-year-old girl in August who was walking through Mintz's back yard.

In March 1994, the cat also attacked a woman who tried to pet Cabo through a car window, according to DuPage County animal-control department records. "My parents and everyone thought it was strange they'd have a jungle cat in the first place," said T.J. Tyrrell, 16, who lives near Sari Mintz's house in Downers Grove. For now, Judy and Bill Mintz are planning to proceed with rabies shots for Alice, whose stitches were removed earlier this week, Stavins said. A doctor already has administered two rabies shots and will give her three more over the course of the next three weeks, Stavins said. "It's going to turn out right," Stavins said after Wednesday's hearing. "The family can start healing again."

Date: Thursday, June 29, 1995

OWNER TOLD TO KILL JUNGLE CAT NOW SAYS IT ISN'T HERS

A woman who reluctantly agreed to destroy a pet jungle cat that mauled her niece threw a roadblock in front of authorities Thursday by claiming the cat is not hers. Sari Mintz, 33, met with Johnson County officials in Iowa City Thursday morning after claiming the cat legally belongs to her fiance, Tom Harmon, said Kot Flora, disease prevention manager for the Johnson County Public Health Department. Harmon has written several letters to Johnson County officials saying the cat is his, Flora said.

The ownership question must be settled before the cat is destroyed and autopsied to determine if it has rabies, Flora said. DuPage County Circuit Judge Bonnie Wheaton had given Mintz until Thursday to turn the cat over to animal control officers in DuPage County or in Iowa City, where she took the cat last week to the veterinary clinic where she bought it. Mintz's niece, Alice Mintz, 2, required 200 stitches on her face and scalp June 18 after she was mauled by the 20-pound golden jungle cat named Cabo at her aunt's home in Downers Grove. The child received her first rabies shots the next day. But she could be spared additional shots if an autopsy on the cat shows it is not rabid.

Date: Friday, June 30, 1995

CATFIGHT GETS EVEN SNARLIER NEW LIFE FOR CABO MAY MEAN MORE RABIES SHOTS FOR GIRL

There is no such thing as a cat with nine lives. But in the continuing legal battle over Cabo, the exotic feline who mauled a 2-year-old girl, there may soon be a cat with nine lawyers. In a case that has gotten curiouser and curiouser, the jungle cat won another reprieve from death Thursday. This time, it was a new mystery-over who actually owns Cabo-that saved him. Thomas Harmon, who is engaged to marry alleged cat owner Sari Mintz, hired an attorney in Iowa to bolster his claim that Mintz does not own Cabo after all.

Rather, Harmon claims he alone owns the cat. The custody battle outraged the 2-year-old's parents, apparently threatened Mintz's engagement and pitted authorities in Iowa and Illinois against one another in a legal scrimmage that could drag on indefinitely. Meanwhile, Cabo remains alive and well but quarantined in Iowa City. That is where the cat was originally bought and where DuPage County animal wardens were waiting in the offices of local officials who refuse to honor an Illinois judge's order to turn Cabo over for rabies testing. At the same time, little Alice Mintz faces yet another rabies shot Saturday.

The saga of Cabo the jungle cat, a common wild animal found in Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indochina, kept as a pet in Downers Grove, had contained equal portions of family tragedy and soap opera. But now dramatics seem to be winning out. After the cat, owned by either Mintz or Harmon, attacked Mintz's niece on June 18, the girl needed 200 stitches and faced the prospect of rabies shots unless the animal was decapitated and examined for rabies. Since then, a debate over the cat's fate has become an ordeal that includes secret trips, legal maneuverings more commonly seen in death penalty cases and a family left with emotional wounds. In a joint statement issued through their attorney, Alice's parents, Bill and Judy Mintz, said: "We are truly dismayed and thoroughly shocked that Tom Harmon is more concerned about an animal than his fiance's niece, whom he knows very well."

On Wednesday, the matter appeared to be resolved when Sari Mintz returned from a mysterious trip to an undisclosed location and agreed to comply with a court order to turn over Cabo. It appeared that no obstacle stood in the way of DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton's order that Cabo be handed to animal control authorities in Iowa or Illinois by 9 a.m. Thursday so that he could be killed and his brain tested for rabies. Mintz drove to the Iowa City veterinary clinic where the cat is under observation. But when she arrived, she encountered her fiance's attorney. Mintz's attorney, Frank Howard, said Mintz was anguished by Harmon's decision to enter the fray. When asked about the couple's engagement, Howard frowned and said: "I don't know about the status of that."

During a DuPage County court hearing at 10 a.m., Wheaton ruled that under Illinois law, Mintz is indeed an owner of the cat. Wheaton also reaffirmed her order that Cabo be turned over to animal control officials. But officials in Iowa balked. In Iowa City, Johnson County Atty. J. Patrick White held a news conference in which he declared that Wheaton's ruling had no power in his jurisdiction. More than a week ago, the Johnson County Department of Public Health had ordered that Cabo be confined to the veterinary clinic for 14 days to undergo rabies observation. Those 14 days will expire Monday. White said he has advised the county to enforce the isolation order. This means that the veterinarian is effectively barred from obeying Wheaton's order, according to Kot Flora, disease prevention manager with the Johnson County Public Health Department.

Even if the veterinarian wanted to turn Cabo over to animal control officials, as Wheaton had ordered, he could not do so without violating the Johnson County isolation order, Flora said. "It's kind of at a standstill until the legal authorities do something else," Flora said. But the attorneys now at the forefront of the case were unwilling to shed light on what would happen next. Neither White nor Harmon's attorney returned telephone calls requesting a comment, and Assistant DuPage County State's Atty. Augusta Clarke would only say: "I have no comment on the case at this time."

The debate over custody turns this catfight into a complex legal battle between jurisdictions in two different states. Legal observers say it is not clear how the dispute might be resolved. "It's significantly more complicated if ownership is in dispute," said Richard Matasar, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "If the owner is clear, Iowa officials are bound by the Illinois courts. If the cat is not necessarily owned by her, it becomes more difficult because the other person has a right to have a hearing to determine who owns the cat." The fight over Cabo began on Father's Day, when Alice and her parents were visiting Sari Mintz and Harmon. Cabo attacked Alice in the back yard. In the days that followed, Mintz and Harmon declined to have Cabo killed and tested for rabies, so Alice's parents turned to the DuPage County state's attorney's office for help.

On June 23, Wheaton ordered that the cat be killed and tested for rabies. But Mintz, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, did not immediately comply with the order, claiming she was out of town on business. Later, the agency announced that Mintz never showed up for the meeting she was scheduled to attend in Washington. Her whereabouts during that time remain a mystery.

The hiatus served as a reprieve for Cabo until Wednesday, when Mintz appeared in court. Now her fiance has extended that reprieve. If Harmon has his way, Alice would be required to undergo all five rabies shots. The girl already has had two shots and faces three more, according to Richard Stavins, the family's attorney. "Alice will continue to receive the rabies injections," Bill and Judy Mintz said through Stavins on Thursday. "Thankfully, there is no life-threatening situation to her." And for now, there appears to be no life-threatening situation for Cabo either.

Date: Saturday, July 1, 1995

CABO'S OWNER PLAYING CAT AND MOUSE WITH AUTHORITIES GAMBIT KEEPS MAULING PET ALIVE

The legal skirmishing over Cabo the jungle cat turned into a manhunt Friday. From DuPage County to Iowa, authorities searched in vain for the cat's self-proclaimed owner, Thomas Harmon, to serve a judge's order that he turn over the exotic feline so that it can be killed and tested for rabies. But Cabo, who mauled a 2-year-old girl, still lives. Harmon's apparent disappearance is the latest twist in a case that has befuddled authorities in two states and prompted a series of emergency court hearings, a brief intervention by Gov. Jim Edgar and, on Friday, inevitably, protests by animal-rights activists. The activists demonstrated outside the Iowa City veterinary clinic, where the exotic cat, a wild species native to Asia and Africa, is under observation.

They urged officials to spare the cat, who inflicted wounds on Alice Mintz, 2, that required 200 stitches. On Saturday, Alice was to receive the third of five rabies vaccinations. Her parents had hoped to avoid further shots by having the cat tested for rabies. But that would require that the cat be killed and turned over for an autopsy. The only obstacle in the way of the DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton's order to have the cat tested is Harmon, who claims sole ownership of Cabo and whose attorney told the veterinarian not to release the cat. DuPage County authorities were "shaking the bushes" Friday in an effort to locate Harmon, said Ardith Baker, manager of the DuPage County Animal Control Department.

Once Harmon is found, he could be held in contempt of court if he does not agree to hand over the cat. Harmon is the fiance of Sari Mintz, the Downers Grove woman who also claims to own the cat that attacked Alice, her niece, on June 18. Sari Mintz has agreed to comply with the judge's order, but Harmon insists that Mintz has no power to decide the cat's fate. Wheaton sought to resolve the dispute Friday with a new court order directed specifically at Harmon and requiring him to turn the cat over to animal control officials from DuPage County or from Johnson County, Iowa. If Harmon can be served wit the court order, it is enforceable in Iowa, legal experts say. But authorities have been unable to serve Harmon with the order. "We'll make every effort to find him," said Assistant State's Atty. Augusta Clarke. But Baker said DuPage County officials don't expect anything to happen before Monday, when a Johnson County order to keep the cat isolated for rabies observation will expire.

Harmon's attorney, James McCarragher of Iowa City, has not appeared in DuPage County Court and has not contacted the DuPage County state's attorney's office, although Wheaton's order was faxed to his office and DuPage officials have been trying to reach him, Clarke said. The drama began on Father's Day, while Alice and her parents, Judy and Bill Mintz of Chicago, were visiting Harmon and Sari Mintz at their home in Downers Grove. Alice was waiting with her mother for Harmon and Sari Mintz to return from an errand when Cabo attacked the toddler in the couple's back yard. While Alice was in the hospital, Cabo was taken to the veterinary clinic in Iowa City. In 1992, Harmon had purchased the cat from a breeder in Iowa City for $600. The Johnson County Health Department in Iowa City ordered that Cabo be isolated at the vet shop for 14 days and observed for signs of rabies.

When that period expires Monday, nothing will prohibit the veterinarian from releasing Cabo to his owner. Wheaton has ruled that under Illinois law, both Harmon and Sari Mintz are Cabo's legal owners. Last week, Wheaton ordered Sari Mintz to turn the cat over. Mintz did not immediately comply, arguing later that she was unaware of the order because she was out of town on business for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, for which she is a spokeswoman.

But Mintz did not show up for a business convention in Washington and was suspended for two days. Edgar said he hoped the agency would take action against Mintz if she failed to comply with the court order. Within days, Mintz appeared in court and agreed to comply. That's when Harmon stepped forward through his attorney with his bid to save the cat. "Everything would have been over days ago, but Tom Harmon claimed he was the sole owner. That's pure nonsense," said Richard Stavins, the attorney representing Alice and her parents. "I wish I knew what motivated Tom Harmon to do what he did."

Date: Sunday, July 2, 1995

CAT CASE: IT'S JUNGLE OUT THERE TRICKY BRINGING A PET TO JUSTICE

In legal maneuvering that would do O.J. Simpson proud, defenders have kept the law at bay to spare a jungle cat from the death penalty for mauling a 2-year-old girl so severely that she needed 200 stitches. And no matter how many times DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton orders that the exotic cat, named Cabo, be killed and tested for rabies, he always seems to have someone waiting to come to his rescue.

With no end in sight for this case-which so far has included emergency court action, an animal- rights demonstration, a manhunt, comments from Gov. Jim Edgar and a flurry of legal paperwork-it's easy to wonder what happened to everyone's sense of proportion. After all, we're talking about a cat. The DuPage County Animal Control Department already has euthanized 496 cats this year. "This is a case, really, that the courts should never have been involved in," said Richard Matasar, dean of Chicago-Kent College of Law. "It should have been worked out by the people involved early on." Added Mike Dsida, a lawyer and instructor at Loyola University Chicago: "It's ridiculous. It's outrageous that so much energy and time is being spent on protecting a cat when there are countless people who have legitimate legal claims who are going unrepresented."

The curtain rose on the Cabo drama June 18, during an innocent Father's Day get-together at the Downers Grove home of Sari Mintz and her fiance, Thomas Harmon, who both have claimed to own Cabo at various points in the case. Sari's brother, Bill Mintz of Chicago, was visiting with his wife, Judy, and their toddler, Alice. The girl and her mother were waiting in the back yard for Sari Mintz and Harmon to return from an errand when Cabo leapt onto the girl and began biting her face and head.

The bickering began almost immediately, when Mintz and Harmon returned from their errand and began to blame Judy Mintz for the attack, according to court testimony. In an effort to protect Cabo, the pair told paramedics that a dog had inflicted the wounds, Judy Mintz later testified. Alice's mother played along with the lie, keeping the truth from doctors until her daughter's treatment for supposed dog bites was well under way. Then Alice's parents decided that they had better have Cabo tested for rabies. Sari Mintz and Harmon refused, according to Richard Stavins, the lawyer who represents Alice and her parents, so the family turned to the DuPage County state's attorney's office. Ever since, the threat of rabies has hung over the case, despite the fact that it is extremely uncommon for rabies to be transmitted through cat bites, according to Dr. John Flaherty, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center. "Most animals that get it die from it," Flaherty said.

Since Cabo remains alive and well, "I don't know why they are getting so nervous." Indeed, Cabo has been vaccinated against rabies, although a veterinarian has testified that the rabies vaccination commonly used for house cats is not licensed for use with jungle cats. Such animals are of a different species from domestic cats and are native to Africa and Asia. And even the rabies shots that Alice must now endure are not as painful as most people might think. Less potent vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s required 23 shots in the abdomen, said Dr. B. Ramakrishna, an infectious disease consultant who practices in several Chicago-area hospitals. But more potent vaccines that have become widely available since the mid-1970s require only five shots and are no more painful than any other type of vaccination, Ramakrishna said.

Despite this, Wheaton issued an emergency order June 23 that Cabo be turned over to animal control authorities so that he could be killed and his brain tested for the disease. State law required this, Wheaton ruled. By that time, though, the cat had been transported across the state line to its veterinarian in Iowa City. Harmon originally had purchased Cabo from an Iowa City breeder. Authorities tried to serve the court order on Mintz, but she was nowhere to be found. Several days passed. She later claimed to have been unaware of the order because she was in Washington on business for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, where she is a spokeswoman. Ultimately, the agency revealed that she had skipped the meeting. Her whereabouts on those days have remained a mystery. Edgar called for the agency to take action against Mintz if she refused to comply with the court order. But she returned Wednesday to Illinois, appeared in court and agreed to obey Wheaton's order.

Regardless of whether she intended it, her hiatus served as a temporary reprieve for Cabo. Harmon offered yet another reprieve when he surfaced with his lawyer and claimed that he alone owned Cabo. Through his attorney, Harmon said that Mintz has no right to decide Cabo's fate. Johnson County health officials in Iowa had ordered that Cabo be confined at the vet's clinic for 14 days for rabies observation. With the cat custody battle raging, the Johnson County attorney declared that Wheaton's order could not be enforced. Instead, the county opted to continue enforcing its isolation order, which expires Monday. Wheaton attempted to resolve the dispute Friday by issuing yet another order, this time directed at Harmon. But so far, authorities have been unable to find Harmon and serve him with the order. So for now, Cabo is safe. But nobody knows what will happen Monday, when the Johnson County order expires and nothing is left to prevent the vet from returning Cabo to one of his owners. "They don't have complicated extradition laws for animals," said Dan Kahan, a University of Chicago law professor. "This doesn't happen every day."

If Cabo were a child in an Illinois custody dispute, and if he were taken to Iowa by one parent, Iowa authorities would gladly extradite the child based on an order from Illinois, legal observers said. The same extradition policy should apply to Cabo, according to attorneys. That means that if Illinois finds Harmon and serves him with the order demanding Cabo's return and he refuses, Illinois could turn to Iowa officials and demand that the cat be extradited. Most likely, Iowa would comply. Friday, a handful of animal welfare activists entered the fray, gathering outside the Iowa City vet clinic to protest Wheaton's order that the cat be killed. Only time will tell whether more defenders will launch additional efforts to save the cat. But for now, it remains to be seen just how far authorities will be willing to go in order to bring a cat to justice. Kahan speculated: "Illinois isn't going to put itself into a civil war with Iowa over something this silly."

Date: Tuesday, July 4, 1995

FUGITIVE CAT IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL IN IOWA

Cabo the jungle cat is alive, apparently well and still in Iowa. The Iowa-mandated 14-day waiting period to check for the possibility of rabies ended Monday morning. The cat that has brought infamy to its two Downers Grove owners was waiting to be picked up at the Iowa City veterinary clinic, where it has been watched for symptoms of rabies and protected from Illinois authorities who have been seeking to have it killed. The Johnson County Public Health Department signed an order permitting the All Pets Veterinary Clinic to release the cat, but by late Monday afternoon, the cat was still there. Cabo is accused of attacking 2-year-old Alice Mintz of Chicago on Father's Day in the back yard of a Downers Grove home shared by Sari Mintz and Thomas Harmon. The toddler required 200 stitches and is undergoing a series of five rabies shots that are medically required because of the lack of knowledge about Cabo.

Richard Stavins, attorney for Alice's parents, Judy and Bill Mintz, said Monday that the end of the quarantine does not change matters in Illinois, where a court order directs the cat's owner to turn it over so it can be killed for rabies testing. Stavins said the only way to know for sure whether the cat is infected is through an autopsy. He said Alice Mintz will continue to receive rabies shots until an autopsy is completed. She received the third of five shots Saturday and will get the fourth this Saturday and the fifth about two weeks after that. Stavins said he wants the cat "dispatched" both to test it for rabies and because it has bitten at least four people and should not be allowed to attack anyone else. He said he doesn't know where Harmon is, and he expressed disgust that there hasn't been an end to the controversy and that Harmon now appears to be trying to circumvent the court order for the sake of the cat. "I cannot explain a person who puts a cat above his niece-to-be or any other child," he said. "We're just appalled," he said. "The feeling is that Tom Harmon right now stands out there as the wrongdoer."

Stavins also said Harmon's claim that he alone owns the cat is "just ridiculous." Under Illinois law, he alleges, a pet's owner is "the people who harbor the animal, who care for the animal, who have dominion over the animal. That's everybody in the household. Therefore, by law, they (Harmon and Sari Mintz) are both the owners of it." Within a day of the attack, the two owners took the cat to the Iowa clinic, saying that they bought it there and wanted it watched there. Several days later, Mintz was told by DuPage Judge Bonnie Wheaton to produce the cat for examination, which meant killing it in order to examine the cat's brain for the presence of rabies. But the DuPage order doesn't hold any legal claim in Iowa, and the order was written to Mintz.

Late last week, after that initial order was given, Harmon claimed that he and he alone owned the cat and that it was not to be destroyed. Mintz has already been served with legal papers demanding the cat's presence in DuPage County, and Judge Wheaton has ordered the same papers to be served on Harmon, but his location has been unknown for several days and the papers have gone unserved. "We are just holding tight and waiting to see what happens," Ardith Baker, manager of DuPage County Animal Control Department, said Monday.

Date: Wednesday, July 5, 1995

JUNGLE CAT EUTHANIZED IN IOWA FELINE THAT MAULED DOWNERS GROVE GIRL FREE OF RABIES, EARLY TEST INDICATES

Legal maneuvering to save Cabo, the condemned Downers Grove 20-pound jungle cat that mauled a 2-year-old girl, has came to an end, it was revealed Wednesday. Thomas Harmon, who claimed to be Cabo's sole owner and tried to block an Illinois court order that the cat be killed and tested for rabies, signed papers Monday night allowing an Iowa City veterinarian to euthanize the animal. "His options were either to quit his job and move out of Illinois or to have Cabo euthanized and try to move on," said Dr. Greg Zimmerman, who euthanized the animal later Monday night. "He was naturally really upset and did not want to have his kitty cat euthanized."

So ended a drama that pitted the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office and the parents of the girl, who needed 200 stitches, against Harmon, whom Illinois authorities could not find to serve him with a court order that Cabo be killed. Young Alice Mintz already has received three rabies shots, but it appears she won't need any more. Cabo tested negative for rabies, Zimmerman said.

Cabo attacked Alice on June 18 while she was visiting her aunt, Sari Mintz, in Downers Grove. Harmon and Sari Mintz planned to marry this fall. Each claimed to own Cabo. Harmon, who originally bought Cabo from a breeder near Iowa City, brought Cabo to Zimmerman's office for rabies observation. A preliminary exam showed no signs of the disease, an assistant in Zimmerman's office said Wednesday. Final tests will be completed in a month. After the attack, Alice's parents, Bill and Judy Mintz, of Chicago, sought to have Cabo killed and tested for rabies. Sari Mintz declined, and the DuPage County State's

Attorney's office obtained a court order to have the cat killed. Several days after the order was issued, Sari Mintz appeared in court and agreed to comply. That's when Harmon stepped forward through his attorney, claimed to be Cabo's sole owner and told Zimmerman not to follow Sari Mintz's instructions for the cat. A judge then ordered Harmon to turn over the cat, but authorities could not find him. "I'm just sorry that it has taken so much time and energy from so many people, and that this child had to suffer," said Ardith Baker, manager of the DuPage County Animal Control Department.

Date: Thursday, July 6, 1995

CAT'S DEATH LEAVES LITTLE SATISFACTION RABIES TEST NEGATIVE; FAMILY TRIES TO HEAL

A bitter legal fight that unfolded between Father's Day and the 4th of July over "Cabo," an exotic pet jungle cat that mauled a toddler, ended Wednesday with no winners. The 2-year-old victim, who needed 200 stitches, suffers lingering emotional problems as a result of the attack, according to her family's attorney. The girl's aunt, who claimed to own the cat, has been reassigned from the public relations department of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, where she was a spokeswoman. After authorities announced Wednesday that Cabo had been killed and tested for rabies (he was negative), most of the key players issued brief statements distancing themselves from the intense fracas that had occupied so much of their time just a few days ago.

It was a quiet conclusion to two weeks of turmoil that included four court hearings, three judicial orders, a plea from Gov. Jim Edgar, a protest by animal rights activists and a cadre of lawyers generating countless billable hours. On Monday, Thomas Harmon, the man who claimed to be Cabo's sole owner and who tried to block a judge's order to have the cat killed, signed papers allowing an Iowa City veterinarian to euthanize the animal. Cabo attacked 2-year-old Alice Mintz on June 18 while she was visiting her aunt, Sari Mintz, in Downers Grove. Harmon and Sari Mintz are engaged to be married this fall. Both claimed to own Cabo. Alice already has received three rabies shots, but now that Cabo has tested negative for rabies, no more shots should be necessary. If Cabo hadn't been killed and tested, the girl would have needed two more shots.

Neither Harmon nor Sari Mintz offered any public explanation for the dispute Wednesday. A man who answered the phone at the couple's home but refused to identify himself said: "We're going to clarify the situation from beginning to middle to end, but it will be the time of our choosing." Cabo's death came several days after authorities began their unsuccessful attempt to locate Harmon and serve him with a court order to turn over the cat. "His options were either to quit his job and move out of Illinois or to have Cabo euthanized and try to move on," said Dr. Greg Zimmerman, who carried out the death sentence Monday night. "He was naturally really upset and did not want to have his kitty cat euthanized." The fight over Cabo began shortly after the attack, when Alice's parents, Bill and Judy Mintz of Chicago, sought to have Cabo killed and tested for rabies. Sari Mintz declined, so the DuPage County state's attorney's office persuaded DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton to issue an emergency court order on June 23 demanding the cat's death.

By this time, Harmon, who originally bought Cabo from a breeder near Iowa City, had brought Cabo across state lines to Zimmerman's office for rabies observation. DuPage authorities first tried to serve the order on Sari Mintz, who was identified in animal control department reports as Cabo's owner. After a weekend passed and Mintz had not turned the cat over, Assistant DuPage County State's Atty. Augusta Clarke initiated a second court hearing that would have set the wheels in motion for Mintz to be found in contempt of court. Meanwhile, Edgar called for Mintz's employer, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, to take action against her if she failed to comply with the court order. On June 28, Mintz appeared in Wheaton's courtroom for another hearing. She claimed that she was unaware of the court order because she was in Washington on business. Since then, however, the Toll Highway Authority announced that Mintz never showed up for her business meetings. She has been disciplined and her whereabouts during that period remain unknown. Wheaton again ordered Mintz to turn Cabo over, and Mintz agreed to comply. But the next day, the attorneys were back in court again after Harmon's attorney surfaced in Iowa City with a letter claiming that Harmon was Cabo's sole owner and demanding that Zimmerman not follow Mintz's instructions. On June 29, Wheaton ruled that Mintz was a legal owner of Cabo.

When this failed to persuade Zimmerman to release the cat, Wheaton issued yet another order June 30, this time aimed directly at Harmon. That same day, animal rights activists demonstrated outside Zimmerman's pet clinic, protesting the cat's death sentence. Authorities still had not served him with a copy of the court order Monday, when he showed up at Zimmerman's office and agreed to release the cat. Despite the flurry of legal activity, Harmon's decision in the end to comply with the court order was good enough for the DuPage County state's attorney's office. Said Clarke: "We plan no further action. The court order was never served, and the matter is over for us."

The matter also appears to be resolved for the Toll Highway Authority, where Mintz was disciplined and reassigned out of the public relations department, according to David Loveday, the agency's spokesman. "Because of confidentiality, we can't say what the discipline was," Loveday said. "We consider the matter closed." The Mintz families also hope to put this episode behind them, said Richard Stavins, attorney for Alice's family. "They are trying to patch up," Stavins said. "They are a close family." Stavins said he would seek a settlement from the company that provides home insurance for Harmon and Sari Mintz. "I always thought every day that this was going to end, and then something else would happen to make it go on and on," Stavins said. "Hopefully, this is the end now."

Date: Sunday, July 9, 1995

CLOUT OR BUNGLING GAVE CABO THE CAT ONE LIFE TOO MANY

Cabo, the jungle cat of Downers Grove, was tethered in its back yard one Sunday when it savagely attacked a little girl. By that Friday, DuPage County Animal Control was calling for the cat's head, literally, and appealing for same to higher authorities. But Cabo's owner was balking, failing to produce the cat. The time was last summer. "It was deja vu," said former animal control administrator Daniel Boyle, describing his reaction when he first read of Cabo's high-profile attack on a 2-year-old girl on Father's Day. "I said `Here we go again.' I knew it was going to happen." Easy to say now.

Yet a copy of a letter Boyle wrote to Illinois Department of Agriculture chief veterinarian David Bromwell 10 months ago suggests Boyle was indeed quite prophetic about Cabo. "I don't feel confident that the owners have acted responsibly in keeping the animal confined," he wrote. "I feel this animal does not qualify for impoundment and that the cat should be euthanized and sent in for specimen." Boyle, now a veterinarian in Broadview, described for Bromwell Cabo's Aug. 21, 1994, attack on a 10-year-old-girl and the girl's grandfather who came to her aid. "On a previous bite of March 1, 1994," he reminded Bromwell, "it was your decision to treat this animal as a domestic cat."

Nevertheless, Boyle noted, Cabo was declared a dangerous animal under county ordinance, and co-owner Sari Mintz-until recently the manager of public relations for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority-was directed to secure the appropriate federal license. She and her fiancee, Tom Harmon, did so on April 14, 1994, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Witnesses have stated that the animal has been routinely left unattended for several hours at a time," Boyle wrote. "It is also noted that the cat has escaped and run freely through the neighborhood on several occasions." When Boyle wrote his letter, Mintz had failed for four days to respond to an order to have the cat confined for observation. (She later complied). But neither Bromwell nor anyone at the state Agriculture Department OKd Boyle's suggestion, a suggestion that, if followed, would have spared Alice Mintz, Sari's niece, 200 stitches, and would have spared area residents this Stephen-King-meets-Shakespeare soap opera of terror, intrigue and peculiar loyalties. Bromwell was unavailable for comment Friday, but state Agriculture Department spokeswoman Dawn Edwards said that, in general, when the owner of a dangerous animal has a current federal permit, as Mintz did, such suggestions become a federal matter.

Boyle said the state Agriculture Department never mentioned this to him in refusing to act, and that when he asked the federal licensing agency to revoke the permit last fall, nothing happened. A federal licensing official said state laws should have taken precedence. "I wanted Springfield to back me up," Boyle said, explaining why he didn't act unilaterally to have Cabo destroyed in August. "I was afraid they'd come back and undermine me." Hmmm. How do you suppose it is that the dangerous pet of a prominent state employee survived an urgent, official call for its destruction? Hmmm.

Whether it was clout, bureaucratic bungling, miscommunication or simple jurisdictional confusion that prolonged Cabo's life, it's clear that blame for the Father's Day mauling extends beyond members of the Mintz clan and that laws need to be sharper in this area to protect the innocent. The innocent includes the wild animals that misguided people keep as pets, such as the late Cabo. No matter how many times it attacked humans-and reports of an additional assault surfaced last week-it was simply behaving like a jungle cat.

Even though Cabo appeared to be free of rabies for two weeks and, indeed, proved free of rabies in the autopsy, it had to die Monday-sacrificed as much to spare the toddler in the latest incident several more shots as to discourage the next owner in Sari Mintz's position from hiding out, employing courtroom stalls and otherwise delaying in hopes of saving a dangerous animal's life despite the added cost in human fear and suffering. Cabo's was a martyr's death, to be sure. It ought to anger and disgust us, not please us, particularly but not only because it was so long overdue.

Date: Tuesday, July 11, 1995

CABO THE BITING JUNGLE CAT BITES THE DUST

The owners of Cabo the cat lost their battle - and Cabo lost its life. The pet jungle cat was given a death sentence last month after attacking 2-year-old Alice Mintz, the cat keeper's niece, in Downers Grove. Alice got 200 stitches on her scalp and face and started getting rabies shots; the cat had to be killed, officials said, so it could be checked for rabies in an autopsy.

Instead, cat keeper Sari Mintz high-tailed it to Iowa with Cabo so it was out of Illinois officials' reach. From Iowa, the whole mess got even hairier: Sari Mintz said the cat technically belonged to her fiance, Thomas Harmon, so she couldn't give permission for Cabo to be put to sleep. Finally, after days of wrangling with officials, Harmon and Sari Mintz signed papers allowing Cabo to be killed, and the cat was put down July 3. Cabo's body was taken to the University of Iowa for rabies testing. Early results showed no signs of rabies.

Date: Tuesday, July 25, 1995

JUNGLE CAT'S OWNER MISSES COURT DATE

One of the owners of Cabo, the infamous late pet jungle cat, missed an appointment with the criminal justice system Monday. Sari Mintz, the aunt of a 2-year-old girl who required about 200 stitches after being attacked by the cat last month, failed to show up Monday for her initial court date in the Downers Grove branch of the DuPage County Circuit Court, where she is charged with keeping a dangerous animal. According to village prosecutor Linda Pieczynski, when a person charged with violating a village ordinance misses a court appearance, a second date is assigned. Mintz is to appear next month.

If she misses that date, an arrest warrant could be issued, Pieczynski said. Co-owner Tom Harmon, Mintz's fiance, has been charged with violating ordinances against keeping a dangerous animal and resisting a police officer. Harmon was notified of the charges by mail about a week ago, a spokesman for the Police Department said, but as of Monday Harmon had not turned himself in to police and had not officially received his citations, so no court date has been set. DuPage courts have no set timetable for an alleged violator to turn himself in, leaving the decision to police.

Cabo became the center of a controversy last month after a DuPage judge ordered the cat killed to facilitate checking for rabies. But Mintz and Harmon took the cat to Iowa, out of the court's jurisdiction. After a two-week court battle, during which the child received three of a scheduled five rabies shots, Mintz and Harmon had the cat put to sleep. No evidence of rabies was discovered.

Date: Saturday, September 2, 1995

CABO'S KEEPER FOUND DEAD AT HOME

A man who tried to thwart the court-ordered death of a jungle cat that mauled a 2-year-old girl was found dead Friday in an apparent suicide, authorities said. Thomas Harmon, 37, was found in the garage at the Downers Grove house he shared with his fiancee, Sari Mintz. The garage door was jammed shut, authorities said, and the engine of the vehicle inside was running. Harmon faced a Sept. 18 court appearance on charges of possessing a dangerous animal and obstructing a police officer. The charges stemmed from June 18, when Cabo, an exotic jungle cat kept at the Downers Grove house, mauled Mintz's niece, who required 200 stitches. Harmon took the cat to Iowa and disappeared, setting the stage for a legal battle as authorities tried to serve him with a judge's order to have Cabo killed. Ultimately, Harmon complied. Mintz told police she last saw Harmon Thursday night, said Downers Grove Police Sgt. Riccardo Ginex.

Date: Tuesday, September 19, 1995

JUNGLE CAT OWNER GIVEN FINE

Yet another act in what a prosecutor called a needless drama of Shakespearean proportions was played out Monday in a DuPage County court, where Downers Grove resident Sari Mintz was ordered to pay a $500 fine for keeping a dangerous animal. The charge-a village ordinance violation-and the fine belie the extent of the tragedy that resulted from Mintz's ownership of Cabo the cat, a small jungle feline that Mintz and her fiance, Thomas Harmon, kept in their home. In three months, a 2-year-old girl has been left badly mauled, one of the cat's owners has committed suicide, the other has been transferred out of her job and the animal itself has been killed after a battle that crossed state borders. "This case is disturbing and goes beyond normal ordinance violations," DuPage County Judge Roy Lawrence said as he slapped the maximum possible criminal penalty on Mintz, a former public relations worker with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

"This animal offered a substantial background of what you could expect from it," he said. Monday's action lays to rest official action against Cabo and his owners. But Mintz still faces civil lawsuits relating to previous alleged attacks by the cat. Months before the toddler's tragic mauling, according to prosecutors, Mintz already had been found guilty on a previous charge of keeping a dangerous animal, fined $50 and warned by the DuPage County Animal Control Department to get rid of the cat. Then, on June 18, in the back yard of their home, Cabo attacked Mintz's 2-year-old niece and the child needed 200 stitches to close her wounds. She also had to begin a series of rabies shots. DuPage County Judge Bonnie Wheaton ordered the cat destroyed to facilitate rabies testing. Rather than submit to the destruction of the cat, Harmon took the cat to Iowa, touching off more than a week of legal wrangling between officials in DuPage County and in Iowa.

Ultimately, however, the cat was destroyed by an Iowa veterinarian and tests determined that Cabo did not have rabies. The child's treatments were discontinued. After the news of the cat attack became public, tollway officials attempted to locate Mintz at a West Coast convention she was supposed to be attending. When it was discovered that she wasn't at the convention, as authority officials believed, she received a reprimand and was transferred to the Finance Department. Even Gov. Jim Edgar entered the fray, questioning whether Mintz had been trying to thwart a legal court order. Meanwhile, Downers Grove police charged Mintz and Harmon for a second time with illegally keeping a dangerous animal. Harmon also was charged with obstructing a police officer when the officer came to investigate.

Last month, Harmon committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide in the garage of the couple's Downers Grove home, according to authorities. "This is a Shakespearean tragedy," said Downers Grove prosecutor Linda Pieczynski, as Mintz faced the charge against her on Monday. Mintz had ample reason to know the cat was dangerous, Pieczynski said. "There are pending lawsuits in Cook and DuPage Counties from previous alleged attacks by this cat, and in 1994 Mintz was found guilty of keeping a dangerous animal and paid a $50 fine. "I know this case and Mintz have been under intense media scrutiny, but had she taken hold of things, none of this would have occurred," Pieczynski said. At one point, Pieczynski took a picture of the 3-year-old and showed the judge the wounds, saying, "This is just horrible, over 200 stitches."

When Pieczynski was addressing Judge Lawrence, Mintz looked upset and indicated to her attorney, Frank Howard, that she wanted to say something. But Howard spoke for her, telling the judge that much of the case "was a personal, private matter" and he asked the judge for "compassion." Mintz declined to comment on the fine at court on Monday. But later, in a television interview, she blamed "unfair" media coverage of what she called a personal family matter. She said that before she and Harmon purchased Cabo three years ago they did a lot of research on the breed. "It was a very loving, very playful, very fun animal," she said. Mintz conceded that she had made a mistake in allowing Cabo out of his caged area while her sister-in-law and niece were visiting in June. But she said the sister-in-law erred in allowing the little girl to play unattended in the back yard. "I am paying the ultimate price," she said. She said that Harmon's suicide note said "he loved me and missed the cat and that he was sorry.