One Seattle, Washington, woman is suing the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels on behalf of her now deceased cat.
Lauren Ann Lombardi filed suit on Monday, claiming the famous squadron violated her First Amendment rights after they blocked her from commenting on their Instagram page, where she had previously complained about their annual August air shows, Fox News reported.
During the airshow, the Blue Angels fly F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jets, reaching speeds of 700 mph.
Fox News reported that these maneuvers result in noises that reach “extreme decibel levels,” and it was these noise that Lombardi claimed terrorized her elderly cat, Layla, before her death in August 2024. Lombardi claimed that the terror caused by the “state-sanctioned acoustic torture” coupled with Layla’s congestive heart disease was the reason for her death.
Beginning in August 2023, Lombardi began complaining about the airshow, taking to the group’s Instagram page and leaving numerous comments. Fox News reported a few of the angry messages Lombardi left on the social media page before she was blocked: “Stop with your F***ing bulls*** you are terrorizing my cat and all the other animals and wildlife,” “F*** off,” and “Nobody gives a f*** about your stupid little planes.”
By Aug. 5, 2023, Lombari was blocked, leading her to start a petition on Change.org to end the airshow.
The lawsuit mentioned Commander Adam Bryan; L. Ben Bushong, the public affairs officer for the Blue Angels; and a social media administrator who went unnamed.
Cat mom accuses Blue Angels of terrorizing her dying 14-year-old cat with ‘sonic barrage’ practices: ‘It terrified her so much’ https://t.co/9b5GcYYzEV pic.twitter.com/KsKUJGNpkv
— New York Post (@nypost) July 25, 2025
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It further stated, Lombardi “engaged in a familiar American pastime of complaining to her government about her government’s actions through her government’s social media accounts.”
“These thin-skinned bureaucrats blocked Lombardi from commenting any further, thereby muzzling an American citizen while simultaneously blinding the broader public from witnessing legitimate grievances against their government,” the lawsuit said.
“Every August was good until then, but no August would ever be the same again. Layla’s condition continued to deteriorate and she left home again, for the final time. She spent her last week fighting for her life in a specialty hospital before being humanely euthanized on August 11, 2024, surrounded by her inconsolably grieving family,” it explained.
Lombardi said she supports the military and that her lawsuit is due to “environmental and Constitutional harms caused by their demonstration practices and subsequent censorship activities.” She is asking for payment for attorney’s fees, to be unblocked on Instagram, and for the named defendants to take First Amendment training.
Lombardi is not the only Seattle resident with a Blue Angels problem. KTTH reported, the “Air Show Climate Action Coalition” rented a billboard protesting the air show, citing concerns about “militarization,” climate pollution, and noise.
Be it an activist group or an angry cat lady, it is sad these people lack enough purpose in life to simply ignore or even enjoy an annual airshow.
We would all go to bat for our pets; they are family.
But Lombari’s crusade looks more like that of someone angry and looking for meaning than it does a concerned pet owner.
The fact that this is Seattle can’t go unaddressed.
Leave it to one of the bluest cities in the country to find a reason to despise and protest an airshow.
It’s not that the Blue Angels were doing daily flyovers, making sure Seattleites activities and sleep schedules were disrupted as they just tried to live their lives.
This happens once a year, and some residents still found a way to complain.
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