Cat beaten with metal bar, euthanized
Fisher, IL (US)

Incident Date: Wednesday, Jun 22, 2011
County: Champaign

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Dwight Lee Sweeney, Jr.

A Fisher man who allegedly whacked his cat's head with a metal bar because if soiled his new mattress remained jailed Tuesday on an aggravated animal cruelty charge.

Dwight Sweeney Jr., 35, who listed an address on Stanley Drive, has been unable to post the $1,000 cash he needs to be released after being charged last week with the Class 4 felony.

Fisher Police Chief Robert Bross said Sweeney admitted to police that he intended to "euthanize" his 3-year-old cat because it defecated, urinated and vomited on his new mattress. The cat, however, did not die immediately and had to be euthanized later by animal control authorities.

Bross said about 6:45 p.m. on June 22, a neighbor saw Sweeney toss the gravely injured cat over an 8-foot-tall fence into an empty lot next to his home. The neighbor notified police, who found the cat bleeding from its skull and its right eye protruding from its socket.

Bross said the officer interviewed Sweeney, who admitted in a written statement that he intentionally hit the cat in the skull, intending to kill it.

Bross said Sweeney wrote that after Smoky Joe soiled his new mattress, he picked it up by the scruff, took it to his porch, and hit it in the skull with a heavy metal bar about 18 inches long. Sweeney said he intended to hit the cat hard enough to kill it so it would not suffer.

He then threw the cat over the fence. Two neighbor children, ages 4 and 6, saw him do so, he wrote in his statement.

Bross said Sweeney signed a waiver giving up his rights to the animal, which was taken to the animal control building and euthanized due to the gravity of its injuries. Sweeney was arrested.

He is due back in court Aug. 2.

If convicted, penalties range from probation to one to three years in prison.

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