Valencia man who duct-taped cat’s paws is sentenced to a year in L.A. County jail

A Valencia man convicted of duct-taping a cat’s paws together was sentenced Wednesday to a year in county jail, according to the L.A. County district attorney.

In addition, Tyler Scott Vest, 23, was sentenced to three years of formal probation and ordered to complete 24 hours of animal cruelty counseling.

Vest and his girlfriend, Kylie Stringer, 27, of Canyon Country, both entered no-contest pleas to animal cruelty charges during their arraignments on Jan. 13.

Vest also pleaded no contest to a felony count of possession of heroin.

Stringer was sentenced on March 2 to three years of informal probation and was ordered to complete a six-month drug treatment program, to perform 15 days of service for Caltrans, and to undergo 24 hours of animal cruelty counseling.

The couple is also banned from owning, possessing or having direct contact with animals for five years and had to forfeit their cat.

The couple was arrested on the night of Jan 9 in Santa Clarita when two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies approached their car parked near Sand Canyon and Soledad Canyon roads. The deputies searched their vehicle and found heroin and narcotics paraphernalia, prosecutors said.

The deputies also found a cat inside a pet carrier with all four of its paws duct-taped and bound together, prosecutors said.

The cat, named Lily by animal rescue workers, was taken to an animal shelter, where it recovered.

The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Santa Clarita Station.

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