Somewhere within the parameters of a technical legal argument, Daniel Vitilio made his point: I love my cat.
More than 50 supporters of the Kingsville resident packed into a circuit courtroom Monday as Vitilio appealed Baltimore County?s demands he get rid of his pet Siberian lynx, “Puddy.”
Earlier this year, Vitilio lost his case before the county?s highest appellate board to keep the bobcat relative because he received only eight days? notice before the hearing instead of the legally required 10, his attorney argued Monday. His attorney could not attend the hearing, and an ill-prepared Vitilio was forced to represent himself, he said.
“I?m not ashamed to say he floundered,” attorney Frank Vernon Boozer said. “It was more of an onslaught of questions to rush my client through it, and he was severely prejudiced.”
But county attorney Nancy West said the county provided ample notice of an original hearing date, which Boozer postponed. She called his scheduling argument “ludicrous,” and a “self-inflicted hardship.”
Puddy has lived on Vitilio?s ranch along with peacocks, goats, a pig, miniature horses and several exotic birds for two years. Animal-control officers testified in June that the lynx ? which they said can grow to 90 pounds and kill prey up to three times its size ? poses a public threat because there is no proven rabies vaccine.
Vitilio has a federal permit to keep Puddy and maintains the county sent an inspector to make sure his cage, which includes surveillance cameras and cost more than $30,000, was secure. The county cashed his check for a permit but later denied the request.
Waving pictures of Puddy, neighbors and family standing outside the hearing room Monday called the lynx a “big house cat.”
“The cat is harmless,” said Kelly Pilachowski, Vitilio?s niece. “The county gave him permission and then retracted it. It?s not right.”
