Charges: Kanabec County tenant and building manager had cats ‘die in their arms’ after landlord allegedly poisoned animals

A landlord in Kanabec County in east-central Minnesota has been charged with one count of animal cruelty and two counts of mistreating animals for allegedly poisoning a tenant’s cats he didn’t want on the property.

A retired veteran who lives in the building called authorities on July 20 to say he suspected his landlord, Kevin Halverson, 57, of Blaine, had harmed the cats. The veteran had been feeding the cats living outside his building on Union Street and had plans to take them to a shelter when he noticed “a rapid decline in their health,” the charges said.

The veteran said he has experience with taking care of cats and was working with his case manager at the Veterans Administration to get the cats to a shelter. But the man’s landlord, identified as Halverson, “was not happy” the man was taking care of the cats and wanted him to stop, the complaint filed Friday said.

Halverson allegedly brought the building’s manager a jug of antifreeze and asked him to put the solution in tuna cans to kill the cats. The building manager declined, but told a Kanabec County sheriff’s deputy that Halverson put antifreeze in a trailer that cats often crawl into. Halverson told the building manager “he did not want the cats on the property,” the complaint said.

Shortly after Halverson brought the antifreeze to the trailer, the veteran and the building manager said they saw cats getting skinny and sick, one dead and contorted and had others “die in their arms,” the complaint read.

Halverson was charged by summons and did not appear to be in custody as of Tuesday morning.