Democratic Operative's Cat SLAUGHTERED, 'Liberal' Painted On Corpse

WASHINGTON -- The race for the Arkansas' third congressional district
took a gruesome turn on Sunday, when the campaign manager for
Democratic challenger Ken Aden came home and found his cat slaughtered
with the word "liberal" painted on the corpse.

According to a press release sent out by the Aden campaign, "The
family pet, an adult, mixed-breed Siamese cat, had one side of its head
bashed in to the point the cat's eyeball was barely hanging from its
socket. The perpetrators scrawled 'liberal' across the cat's body and
left it on the doorstep of [Jacob] Burris' house."

Burris, Aden's campaign manager, told The Huffington Post that it was
his 5-year-old son who first saw the atrocity. He had taken his
children out to fill the family car with gas before going to church, and
the young boy was the first one out of the vehicle when they returned.

Burris has contacted the FBI and is further pursuing the matter with
local law enforcement. The police officer who originally investigated
the matter, according to Burris, said he wasn't sure whether the cat's
killing could be construed as a threat. He was planning to file a report
and said he would note that Burris was Aden's campaign manager.

Burris, however, said he had no doubt that this incident was meant as a threat.

"Absolutely," he told The Huffington Post. "There's a pretty strong
fringe here, but it's never really been personal like this," he added.

Aden, a veteran of the war in Iraq, said in a statement, "To kill a
child's pet is just unconscionable. As a former combat soldier, I've
seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. Whoever did this is
definitely part of the worst of humanity."

Aden made clear that he did not believe Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) or
anyone involved with his campaign were involved in the incident, and
Beau Walker, Womack's campaign manager, strongly condemned it.

"The thought of brutalizing any animal to make a political statement,
no matter what that statement is, is beyond any standard of decency,"
he told The Huffington Post. "The person or people, if there was more
than one, who are responsible -- they definitely need to be held
accountable to the fullest extent of the law. There should be no
tolerance in our political discussion here in this nation for this kind
of behavior."