Camden, the county seat of Benton County, Tennessee, sits on the de facto border of West and Middle Tennessee.
Benton County, which sits directly adjacent to the Tennessee River, is a major destination for duck hunting for Tennesseeans, Kentuckians, and people from even farther away.
One idea that is popular among hunters is that they should strive to kill animals as humanely as possible. something that Camden’s duck hunters share.
Although hunting is so popular in Camden, the aforementioned humane values obviously aren’t present in everybody who lives there.
Cody Shay Townsend, a resident of Camden, Tennessee, was arrested by the Benton County Sheriff Department late last week after being charged with counts of burglary, trespassing, and animal cruelty.
According to the Benton County Sheriff Department, Townsend shared with the officer who responded to onlookers’ calls that he was on a “mission from God … to kill all things evil.”
Whether Townsend suffers from a mental health condition that causes grandiose thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis, was under the influence of psychoactive substances, or both isn’t clear.
However, the Benton County Sheriff Department did share that some people who stay awake on stimulants, namely methamphetamine, for days at a time sometimes experience psychosis to the extent that Townsend was likely experiencing as a result of sleep deprivation mixing with the hallucinatory effects of amphetamine and methamphetamine binges.
Cody Townsend is currently being held by the Benton County Sheriff Department on a $25,000 bond.
He has been jailed by the county’s officials since his arrest last week.
According to eyewitness reports of Townsend’s behavior, the incident started after he ventured onto a neighbor’s yard where a stump was being burned.
Townsend then took the neighbor’s fuel can and thoroughly soaked the neighbor’s dog with gasoline.
Next, Townsend picked the dog up and threw it onto the neighbor’s burning stump.
Although the dog, named Sissy, survived the attacks from Townsend, its owners decided to put the dog down because it was in constant pain as a result of the first- and second-degree burns.
Sissy also suffered extensive cranial bruising and was cut deeply on the top of its head.