A 27-year-old man has been charged in connection with a grim discovery in West Bend last November: seven dead cats and one survivor packed inside a storage tote and left in a dumpster.
The Washington County Circuit Court System's wanted-fugitives page offers a general warning that any warrant must be confirmed by law enforcement before an attempted apprehension, and that the public should not try to detain wanted individuals, according to Washington County, Wisconsin.
The Dumpster Discovery That Led to Charges
The case traces back to November 2, 2025, when West Bend police responded to a dumpster near North 8th and 9th Avenue and found a blue storage tote inside containing seven dead cats, along with one cat that was still alive, according to WISN. Prosecutors subsequently filed a criminal complaint charging Bautista with seven felony counts of mistreatment of animals, plus one misdemeanor count of mistreating animals, the station reported.
According to WISN's account of the complaint, Bautista told investigators he put the cats in the dumpster and that they were all alive at the time he did so. The station's report states that by November 24, the surviving cat — identified by WISN as Gizmo — was healthy enough to be adopted. FOX6, however, identified the surviving cat as Helena, a 1-year-old described as being in the care of the Washington County Humane Society; the discrepancy between the two outlets' reporting on the cat's name has not been resolved.
What Wisconsin Law Says About the Charges
Under the statute cited in state law, a person who intentionally violates animal-mistreatment provisions resulting in an animal's mutilation, disfigurement, or death is guilty of a Class I felony, according to the Wisconsin Legislature.
A Prior Washington County Animal Case
The Bautista warrant isn't the county's only recent animal-mistreatment matter. In a separate case, 34 dogs were seized from Russell Quaas's property in late January 2023, the same station reported. Quaas later pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor mistreatment counts on May 9, with the remaining charges dismissed as part of a plea deal. It is not established whether the Quaas case is otherwise comparable to the Bautista matter beyond the shared animal-seizure circumstances.
