LAKELAND -- A Polk County man is facing charges after he allegedly threw live animals out of a moving truck.
Witnesses said they watched as the driver of a white truck threw kittens out the window while riding down the road.
Witnesses told deputies they first spotted trouble when they saw the same truck run over another kitten and watched a second one scurry away.
The witnesses said they followed behind the truck and that's when the third kitten came flying out. Witnesses said a short while later the driver pulled into a tractor supply store.
When deputies arrived, they found 67-year-old David Arthur shopping inside.
They also found a sign inside his truck that read "Free Kittens." A similar sign sits in front of Arthur's north Lakeland home.
Several cats, including a mother cat nursing a kitten, were roaming around his property Wednesday. Animal control officers found one of Arthur's alleged victims dead in the road, one was alive and the third kitten is missing.
Deputies took one kitten found on the road to a shelter. A vet checked him out and he is now at a pet foster care home.
Arthur now faces three counts of animal cruelty. He'll make his first appearance Thursday afternoon.
Polk County sheriff's officials said Arthur went to the hospital Wednesday afternoon, instead of jail, because of a health problem.
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