FORT WORTH - As protesters continued to roar in Alabama over the court-ordered removal of a religious monument, a lone woman stood before Tarrant County commissioners on Tuesday, saying that the bronze statue of a panther represents "paganism" and should be removed from government grounds.

"In the grassy area in front of this building, there is a statue of a cat, having been placed there with the most insignificant excuse possible," said Blanca Castillo, appearing before the court on the fifth floor of the county's Administration Building.

"That pagan statue is an insult to Christians everywhere, and I respectfully request its removal from any local, state, county [or] federal property," the North Richland Hills woman read from a prepared statement.

Having just finished the regular business of setting taxes, patching roads and paying salaries, County Judge Tom Vandergriff and three commissioners stared at Castillo, seemingly bewildered that someone would object to the bronze statue of a sleeping panther -- a symbol, to many, of Fort Worth's history.

Castillo's concerns come at a time of national debate over whether a 5,300-pound monument of the Ten Commandments should be removed from the rotunda of the state judicial building in Montgomery, Ala. A federal court has ordered the marker removed, citing the Constitution's guarantee that separates church from state.

On Tuesday, at about the time Castillo was addressing Tarrant County commissioners, a crowd of protesters marched in Montgomery, demanding the resignation of that state's attorney general for abiding by the federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument.

An unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Texas board of education, Castillo said she believes the monument should remain in place in Montgomery and that the panther in Fort Worth should go.

It could be replaced, she suggested, with a marble display of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, or a "few choice law-abiding phrases such as ... thou shall not steal ... thou shall not kill ... thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife ..."

Castillo said she would also not be bothered by a statue of a steer, because Fort Worth is nicknamed "Cowtown," but that a "cat-type animal brings more sinister symbolism."

Vandergriff, in a businesslike manner, told Castillo the commissioners would take up the matter at a later meeting because "the law is such that we're not allowed to respond to this today."

But there was little to suggest that county government leaders would side with Castillo and agree to remove the 2,000-pound, 8-foot-long bronze panther.

"I don't want the county to do anything against God's will," Precinct 4 Commissioner J.D. Johnson said. "But I guess I'm having a little bit of a difficult time understanding how a statue of a panther, lying in our front yard, is harming anyone."

Marvin Collins, head of the civil division of the Tarrant County district attorney's office, agreed.

"I love that cat. It's beautiful," he told Castillo.

The image of a sleeping panther has long been a part of Fort Worth history, beginning in the late 1800s, when a Dallas attorney reportedly claimed after visiting Cowtown that "things were so quiet, he had seen a panther asleep on Main Street."

Such stories, whether true or false, later provoked city police officers to wear a patch of the dozing cat on their uniforms. And it was the reason a concert and dance hall off East Lancaster, now demolished, was renowned as much for its name -- Panther Hall -- as it was for the stars who performed there.
Jack Douglas Jr.