California Commissioner Resigns After Throwing His Cat During A Zoom Meeting

Planning commissioner resigns after throwing his cat across the room during a Zoom meeting

The world is adjusting to the new normal during COVID-19 and that means the majority of our lives are being conducted over Zoom. Work meetings, birthdays, and family holidays are all happening online, and with that comes some occupational hazards: dogs barking during work meetings, spouses yelling at different zoom screens in different rooms at the same house, mics not working, you name it. However, one city Planning Commission meeting in Vallejo, California saw something we never thought to encounter on Zoom: a man throwing his meowing cat across the room.

Chris Platzer, a planning commissioner for the small Northern California city attempted to voice his opinion during a routine videoconferencing meeting on April 20, 2020, when his cat loudly mewed offscreen. He picked up the cat, held the animal to the camera, and jokingly told his peers on Zoom, “OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat.” Everyone smiled and laughed and then Platzer literally threw the animal across the room and continued on with the meeting as if nothing had happened.

Weirdly, the others barely reacted to the alarming moment, except one commissioner who threw his head in his hands, because he just watched his coworker toss a cat across a room and why is nobody else bothered by this!?

Although the others on the call seemed unfazed by the awful antic, the New York Times reports that after the call ended Plazter was apparently heard on camera using expletives as the mayor and other city officials discussed his behavior. They called for his removal within 48 hours and Platzer resigned from his voluntary position on the planning commission on Monday, April 27, 2020.

“We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy,” Platzer wrote in a statement. “I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted.”

“The city does not condone the behavior that Vallejo planning commissioner, Chris Platzer, exhibited during the April 20 planning commission meeting,” Christina Lee, the Vallejo city spokeswoman added in a separate statement. “This type of behavior does not model the core values of the city of Vallejo.”

Additionally, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals stated that they were ready to step in and re-home the cat if need be.

Everything is scary and unsettling right now and yes, it is very hard to work at home amid a global pandemic, but “adjusting to a new normalcy” is never an excuse to throw your cat.