Kitten repeatedly run over with bicycle
San Antonio, TX (US)Incident Date: Friday, Aug 4, 2006
County: Bexar
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: 9 year old boy
A nine-year-old boy is accused in a shocking case of animal abuse, but a neighbor is coming to his defense.
He is accused of beating and torturing a kitten so badly that it had to be put to sleep. Now, that boy may face felony charges.
Dr. Roque Gonzalez with Animal Control says this is the worst case of animal abuse he's seen because of the internal damage. Most cases he sees are animals with external injuries only.
He says the kitten had fractured ribs, which could the puncture lungs. That was just the beginning of a huge list of internal injuries that killed the young white cat early Aug 5 morning.
Local news spoke with one neighbor who actually witnessed the abuse. She says it all started around Aug 4 night when she heard a piercing scream.
When she looked out her front door, she says she saw a boy with a kitten pinned up against the wall with his bike, and then she saw him pull back and slam it into the wall again.
Officer Eddie Wright with Animal Control tells News 4, "She ran over there and rescued the cat, and took it to her house and then she later on brought it to animal control."
It was too late, and the kitten had to be put down.
An investigation is underway to find out exactly what the boy did, if anything, and if something could have prevented the kitten's death.
Officer Wright explained the reaction of the boy's mother.
"She denied that anything had happened. According to the witness, she did nothing to stop him and was right there when he did it, and and just continued to let him abuse the cat."
Neighbor Daniel Quintera says if the boy did do it, he probably didn't mean any harm.
"He was just being a kid, you know kids do things. They play with dirt, rocks. Kids are just kids."
Animal control is still investigating, and no charges have been filed against the boy, so far. If he is charged and then convicted, the boy could spend time in juvenile detention.
Officials are also deciding whether to charge the child's mother for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. References« TX State Animal Cruelty Map
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