When breeding or feeding, these cats totally dog it

So I'm reading about Kelvin Cato's little boy. About the squalor and the cat urine. About the flea bites and the nasty aroma that makes adults sick.

And then I'm reading about Ron Artest's pet dogs. About the starvation and dehydration. About the ribs that jut out like a xylophone.

And it hits me:

Kelvin Cato is an effective ATM. But a father? Well, let's just say this biological didn't bother. (Getty Images)

Despite having more money and free time than most of us can imagine, some athletes treat their kids like animals. And they treat their animals like kids. Or both, as Latrell Sprewell demonstrates. Sprewell kept a pit bull that mauled his 4-year-old's face, biting off part of her ear, and refused at first to put down the dog because, he said, "People die every day. Maybe if it had been more serious, it would have affected me."

That was 1994. Last week Sprewell was sued for $200 million by the girl's guardian -- who also has four children with Sprewell -- for allegedly becoming abusive, going skimpy on child support and disappearing when she tried to find him. This from a guy who recently made $14.6 million annually and who once rejected a three-year, $21 million extension because, he said, "I've got my family to feed."

This is depressing stuff, the examples of Sprewell, Cato and Artest, but there is good news here: Their stories are living, breathing caution flags. Any of us who have kids or pets, or might one day have a kid or a pet, can learn from these losers. But athletes really need to listen up, because dollar for dollar they are the worst parents in U.S. society. And given the state of our society, that's saying something.

The Cato story is a chilling example of why athletes need to stop throwing around their sperm like tip money.

Cato reportedly has fathered three kids with three women in three states, but it's the baby momma in Oregon who made national headlines last month when she was found guilty of criminal mistreatment of their son. That boy, a step-sibling and the mother in question were sharing an apartment with 31 cats -- who were making such a mess that a complex maintenance worker had to wear a mask to enter the apartment and a responding police officer complained that the smell burned his eyes and throat.

In fairness to Cato, those weren't his cats, and that wasn't his apartment. But that is his son covered in flea bites and sleeping near cat urine -- and Cato had no idea how his little boy had been living. Cato had provided money on a regular basis and assumed that made him a father.

Wrong, Kelvin. That made you an ATM.

Being a father would have meant checking on the kid, something the mother says Cato rarely did despite playing in a league that has two franchises -- the Blazers and Sonics -- within driving distance of his son. How did Cato learn of his son's plight? Not from first-hand experience. Not from telephone calls with the kid. He learned about it from his attorneys in Oregon.

And how did his attorneys hear about it? From news accounts.

Father knows best? Father knew nothing.

To his credit, Cato now is seeking custody of the child. To his discredit, the gesture comes after six years of paying roughly $2,100 month in child support while earning almost $50 million and spending a fortune on luxury cars and a half-dozen houses. In case the first five houses burned down, I guess.

Some athletes are prolific fathers -- thank you, Shawn Kemp -- but they can be deadbeat dads. Former Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Warren landed on Washington state's "most wanted" list after falling behind by more than $100,000 in child support. Ex-NBA guard Vernon Maxwell made the list in two states, owing $34,000 in support in Washington and $160,000 in Florida for another child. Andre Rison, once the highest-paid receiver in the NFL, was pursued in Georgia for more than $120,000 in support.

Some of them can't care for kids or dogs, yet athletes insist on having both. Artest is in the middle of a six-year, $41 million contract but apparently can't afford Alpo. Last week animal control officers took his malnourished Great Dane, the seventh time since July that officers went to Artest's home in response to dog-related complaints.

When Steelers linebacker Joey Porter's dogs get hungry, they eat a farm animal. Like a neighbor's miniature horse, which they gulped after escaping Porter's fenced yard for the second time. Porter was cited for harboring dangerous dogs.

Ex-NBA forward Qyntel Woods and ex-NFL running back LeShon Johnson could teach Porter about dangerous dogs. Both have been busted for being part of separate dog-fighting rings involving pit bulls. When investigators searched Woods' property near Portland they dug up his back yard for dog remnants. He pleaded guilty to animal abuse and was released by the Blazers.

As for Johnson, the NCAA's leading rusher in 1993 while at Northern Illinois, he pleaded guilty to running a major breeding and fighting outfit in Oklahoma after the confiscation of more than 200 fighting dogs. Investigators said the dogs were weeded out for endurance by being thrown into a tub of water for hours at a time. The ones that didn't drown were deemed fit enough to fight.

Most of the confiscated animals had to be put to sleep.

Sounds to me like they euthanized the wrong pack of dogs.