Case Details

Injured kitten killed with hammer Fort Myers, FL (US) Incident Date: Friday, Nov 23, 2007 County: Lee Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Alleged: Lonnie White

Case ID: 12710 Classification: Beating Animal: cat View more cases in FL (US) Login to Watch this Case

According to the Naples Daily News, a kitten screamed from somewhere in the inner scaffolding of Charlie White's recliner when he got up Friday to use the bathroom in his North Fort Myers home. White says he didn�t look back, just told his 28-year-old son to scoot the grey striped kitten outside so it would stop soiling his floor.

Instead, White says, his son found the kitten with its neck snapped, head flopping to the side, struggling for breath. So Lonnie White did what he thought he had to do, according to his father: He slammed a hammer down on its head.

�He was afraid I�d have a heart attack thinking I�d killed it,� Charlie White, 64, said Monday. Afterward, �he didn�t say anything. He just sat over on the couch crying. He didn�t want to do that, for God�s sake.�

The back story wasn�t enough for Lee County Sheriff�s deputies, who arrested Lonnie White, of 4418 Ruthann Court, on one count of causing an animal a cruel death.

He spent Friday night in jail and then posted bond.

The kitten was one in a litter of five born to a stray the family took in when she was still pregnant, Charlie White said. They gave away the siblings, but kept the little grey one. They hadn�t yet given it a name.

Investigators said the first thing Charlie White brought up when they arrived at the home was his complaint about the kitten urinating or defecating inside. A deputy asked him where the kitten was, according to sheriff�s reports, and his son stepped up to say, �I killed it. I killed the kitten with a sledgehammer.�

Charlie White said Monday it was actually a two-pound hammer he had in the home.

And contrary to sheriff�s reports indicating he was angry at his son for killing the kitten, White said there was no other choice.

�He knew we couldn�t afford to take it to the vet, and there was nothing you could do with a broken neck,� White said. So he said his son swung once, missed, then swung again, smashing the kitten�s head.

Neighbor Walter Clark, 35, reportedly told deputies he saw Lonnie White throw the dead cat into the woods. Clark said he went out, picked up the kitten�s body, brought it back to Lonnie White and asked him to bury it.

The kitten was retrieved from its newly dug grave for a necropsy, according to sheriff�s reports.

Charlie White said that his son, who has been washing dishes at a restaurant �to get us through till he could find a decent job,� was badly shaken by the experience and is not a �damn animal-killer.�

The father described how he taught Lonnie White to put an animal out of its misery a while back when another cat was hit by a vehicle: �I told him the best way to do it was to hit it in the head with a hammer and it�ll go to sleep.�

Lonnie loves animals, Charlie White said. But reporters were stopping by the home all day, and television reports had his son �looking like he�s some kind of madman serial killer.�

�The boy�s so upset, he don�t want to talk to news people,� White said. �He feels bad enough as it is.�

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References

Naples Daily News - Nov 26, 2007

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