Catching of Cubs cat controversial

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CHICAGO, April 23 (UPI) -- An animal rights group official says the way a Wrigley Field guard captured a cat that wandered into a Chicago Cubs game was ill-advised.

Nadine Walmsley, The Anti-Cruelty Society of Chicago's vice president of development, said the unidentified Wrigley Field security guard made a poor decision by deciding to grab the animal by its tail to remove it from the baseball diamond, the Chicago Tribune said Thursday.

"A cat's tail isn't meant to hold their weight, so there could've been some injury to the cat," Walmsley said of Tuesday's incident at the MLB stadium.

While some Tribune readers criticized the guard's actions on the newspaper's Web site, Cubs spokesman Peter Chase has defended the actions of Cubs employees under the unusual circumstances.

The Tribune said its readers appear to also support the controversial cat removal as an unscientific poll by the newspaper found two-thirds of respondents blamed the feline for the incident rather than focusing on the guard's actions.