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Case #12259 Rating: 3.0 out of 5
Cats owned in violation of probation
New York, NY (US)Incident Date: Monday, Aug 6, 2007
County: New York
Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 2 files available
Defendant/Suspect: Oleg Zhdanov
Case Updates: 3 update(s) available
A convicted puppy killer banned from having any pets but fish has been busted for consorting with two exotic cats - including a $2,000 miniature Bengali tiger.
The cats are in the custody of the ASPCA, and Oleg Zhdanov is charged with violating probation and could face up to a year in jail.
"Those cats were in plain view," said ASPCA Assistant Director Joseph Pentangelo.
Zhdanov, 35, pleaded guilty last year in Manhattan Supreme Court to animal cruelty for fatally beating his 15-pound, 5-month-old mixed Lab.
In January, he was sentenced to three years' probation and forbidden from keeping any animals except his collection of tropical fish.
The ASPCA conducted a raid last Monday after a tip that cats could be seen through the window of the W. 56th St. apartment Zhdanov shared with his girlfriend, Tanya Becker.
Becker claimed Zhdanov didn't live there any longer, and another man who rents a room in the apartment said the cats were his.
Suspicious ASPCA agents returned the next day and this time found Zhdanov in the apartment, along with Tommy, the tiger cat, and Rocko, a rare Snowshoe.
When the agents grilled the roommate, he produced a receipt showing he purchased Tommy in 2003 from a Web site, Junglebeat.com, for $2,000. He said he got Rocko from a shelter and had no idea that Zhdanov had pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.
The ASPCA agents took Tommy and Rocko for safekeeping. They left the fish.
"The cats are healthy," said Pentangelo. "They showed no sign of abuse or neglect. But they can't cohabitate with the defendant."
A neighbor who requested anonymity said Zhdanov deserves to be caged.
"Now he has totally disrespected the judge, the court and the ASPCA," the neighbor said. "The judge should put him in jail."
Jack Ryan, a spokesman for the city Department of Probation, said Zhdanov will be notified this week that he has violated the terms of his probation.
Case UpdatesA man who admitted beating his 5-month-old puppy to death has been sentenced to nine months in jail for violating probation by living with a roommate who had two cats.
Oleg Zhdanov had been ordered not to keep any pets except fish. He pleaded guilty last year to animal cruelty in the death of his dog, a Labrador mix named Lelu.
He faced up to a year in jail for the probation violation. But Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Edward McLaughlin said Friday he was convinced Zhdanov ``has some mental condition that is different than the rest of us.''
Zhdanov has called the probation violation charge unfair because the cats weren't his. But the judge said Zhdanov was not allowed even to have access to any animals but fish. | Source: 1010 Wina - Oct 27, 2007
Update posted on Oct 28, 2007 - 3:25AM |
wo years ago, Oleg Zhdanov killed his puppy by repeatedly kicking the six-pound Lab-mix and throwing her against the wall.
Now, the hulking Midtown brute, who served just 45 days in jail for the puppy-slay, is going back to the slammer for as long as a year for living with two cats.
The cats shared Zhdanov's West 56th Street apartment, and were perfectly healthy.
Trouble was, after Zhdanov admitted bludgeoning 5-month-old Lelu to death in 2005, a judge had forbidden him from living with any pet more highly evolved than a goldfish.
"The two cats were obviously in the apartment," the same judge, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin, said during a probation violation hearing yesterday.
"It's to no avail that he says they were not in my room; they were not mine . . . There is no excuse for any animals to be in the residence other than aqua-based beings."
Then he turned to the unemployed, cocaine-abusing, ponytailed Zhdanov.
"For the reasons that are now obvious," the judge told him, "you were not permitted to have access to any animal that doesn't swim."
Yesterday's hearing featured heated testimony on the cats in question. One is a shelter cat, the other a $2,000 miniature Bengali tiger.
Both now live with their owner, Zhdanov's ex-roommate, in another apartment, according to an ASPCA spokesman.
Two neighbors testified to seeing one or both cats in Zhdanov's windows last August, playing with the blinds.
At one point, defense lawyer Arnold Levine grilled a Midtown North cop, Officer Joe Silverman, on exactly what he saw in Zhdanov's apartment.
"Did you see cat litter there?"
"Not that I recall," the cop answered.
"Cat toys?"
"I don't remember."
The judge found that Zhdanov, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, violated probation by skipping appointments, flunking drug treatment and living with the cats, and ordered him to come back Oct. 26, when he'll sentence him to a jail term of up to a year.
"It's not fair," Zhdanov said in his thick Russian accent as he walked out of court after getting the bad news. "It's not my cats."
As for poor Lelu, "I feel guilty that she died," Zhdanov said. "But it's been misinterpreted." | Source: NY Post - Oct 13, 2007
Update posted on Oct 13, 2007 - 9:07PM |
A Manhattan man who escaped a jail sentence for beating his puppy to death in 2005 will have to go behind bars after all because he was caught with cats in his home.
The felines violated a judge's order that Oleg Zhdanov, 35, have nothing but tropical fish for pets.
"There is no excuse for any animal in the residence other than aqua-based beings," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin told Zhdanov on Friday. "You were not permitted to have access to any animal that doesn't swim."
Zhdanov was caught by ASPCA agents with two cats in his West Side apartment. He claimed the kitties belonged to a roommate.
McLaughlin told Zhdanov that "you will be going to jail" but did not say how long the sentence would be. | Source: NY Daily News - Oct 13, 2007
Update posted on Oct 13, 2007 - 9:04PM |
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