WOOSTER, Ohio — A Wooster man accused of animal cruelty has been sentenced to six months of probation. He pled guilty to five counts of cruelty to companion animals and one count of petty theft.
Courtney Holden-Parr described her cat, Bean, as a family member.
"I got him when he was just a baby," she said.
When Bean went missing last year, Courtney feared the worst. Courtney says that her cat was not fixed, but it was something she was going to do. She thought this might be why he would wander.
She posted fliers around Wooster and shared posts on social media offering a reward for Bean’s return.
Months later, Courtney received a call from a man named Walter Schworm, who said he had found her cat.
Courtney says she didn't have the reward money at the time.
She says Walter still returned Bean and told her to pay when she could.
Bean went missing again. One day she thought she heard him in their backyard but couldn't find him.
Believing he might have returned and went back to Walter’s property, Courtney and her husband went to ask him about their pet.
"Me and my husband walked down there and were like, ‘Hey, have you seen Bean today?’ And he straight-face looked at me and said, ‘No, because I killed him. He’s dead,’" Courtney said.
Courtney said she called the police.
According to a police reports, Walter said that Bean had returned to his property and that he couldn’t trust Courtney to retrieve the cat again.
He also stated he could no longer afford to feed Bean, prompting him to kill the cat.
Walter told police that he placed Bean in a modified cooler attached to a CO2 canister, describing the method as a “humane death.”
He told officers Bean died from the administered CO2 in about 3 minutes.
When asked why he chose Bean, Walter told police it was because "Bean was the easiest to catch."
According to the police report, Walter admitted to killing at least 17 cats, including 12 kittens under one week old and six adult cats. He disposed of the dead cats in the regular trash.
The Police reports detail Walter’s property, which appeared to function as an unofficial cat sanctuary.
Investigators noted multiple structures designated for cats, including a converted garage and another covered area.
Walter acknowledged that the cats continued to multiply because they were not spayed or neutered, and he struggled financially to care for them.
Walter told police he borrowed the CO2 equipment from a local exterminating business, under the pretense that it was for dispatching raccoons and skunks.
The owner of the equipment told police he was unaware the equipment was being used on cats and agreed to stop loaning it to Walter.
Initially facing 18 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, Walter pled guilty to five counts. He also pled guilty to one petty theft charge.
On Monday, a Wayne County court sentenced him to six months of probation. He was also ordered to send Courtney an apology letter and pay fines, which included $10 per guilty charge and $100 for petty theft.
Walter had the option to donate the $150 of fines to a local animal shelter in honor of Bean, which he did.
Courtney says the apology letter and $100 of restitution wasn't enough.
“It basically said that he was sorry and that he’s not going to kill any cats. And it was alright until I read that he had a replacement cat for me and the word replacement made me really mad because you can’t replace a family member,” she said.
Walter was also told he could no longer have any more animals on his property and needed to remove feeding dishes, boxes and sleeping quarters.
While Ohio’s Goddard’s Law makes it a felony to harm companion animals, animal advocates argue the law isn’t being applied as it should be.
"At least if it’s a companion animal, it’s a felony now, but that doesn’t happen very often," said Christopher Riggi of Riggi Rescue and an Ohio Animal Advocates, who helped push for the law’s passage in 2022.
In October, the law was updated to include all cats and dogs, regardless of whether they were pets.
Still, Riggi believes the state needs to do more. "It was such a hard fight, and now that it’s here, we aren’t using it to its full effect," he said. “We’re just going to have repeat offenders. We’re going to have people thinking they can do this just all willy nilly.”
