‘Sticky,’ cat found covered in duct tape in Philadelphia, finds new adoptive home

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There’s a happy ending for the cat found covered in duct tape and left in a yard in a residential section of Philadelphia,. The cat, nicknamed ‘Sticky’ by her interim caregivers at the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has been adopted and is now safely at home with her new family.

Sticky was discovered Sept. 22 by the North Philadelphia woman in whose yard she’d been dumped, and reports of the extreme incident of cruelty spread quickly among fuming animal lovers. PSPCA staff reported that it took an hour to cut all the duct tape from the cat’s body. (Sticky had to be sedated in order to complete the process.) PSPCA spokesman George Bengal told Philadelphia’s ABC6 Action News that he’d never before encountered a case of animal cruelty like Sticky’s, adding that ‘whoever did this took a lot of time. It was very methodical... [It is] a very sick individual that would do something like this to a cat.’

In the days that followed, a number of people called the PSPCA claiming ownership of Sticky, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. None of the claims appears to have been legitimate, however, since each caller was given the opportunity to come to the shelter to offer proof that they were the cat’s legal owner. None of them showed. With no owner forthcoming, the PSPCA offered Sticky for adoption -- and received more than 100 requests to adopt her. The group considered the requests on a first-come-first-served basis (Sticky’s eventual adopters, who chose to remain anonymous, put in a request shortly after word of the cat’s abuse broke), and the cat went home with her new family Tuesday.

Over the weekend, a 19-year-old Philadelphia man, James Davis, was arrested on suspicion of committing the crime. According to Bengal, Davis has admitted to covering the cat in duct tape after finding her in his backyard on Sept. 21. If convicted of animal cruelty charges, he could face up to two years in prison and a minimum fine of $1,000, the Associated Press reports. Davis ‘did not have any previous convictions or complaints related to animal cruelty,’ Liz Williamson of the PSPCA told the Inquirer.

Beyond Sticky’s new home and the arrest of her alleged abuser, there’s more good news. The PSPCA says that the number of cats adopted from its shelter during the period Sticky was there nearly quadrupled the total number of cat adoptions from the same period last year, an increase staffers attribute to all the publicity. Plus, the organization received more than $2,000 in donations from members of the public who cited Sticky as their reason for donating.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo (top): Sticky as she was found on Sept. 22 at a home in North Philadelphia. Credit: Associated Press

Photo (bottom): James Davis in an undated police photo. Credit: Associated Press