Cat's neck broken, suffocated to death
Rochester, NY (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Dec 1, 2005
County: Monroe
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Tracie E Stear
» Shane Searchfield
Tracie Stear didn't want to kill her cat. But she thought that under the circumstances, it was the right thing to do. "She was very, very sick," Stear said. "I thought what we were doing was an act of mercy."
Stear is to answer a felony charge in Rochester City Court for her part in the death of Pepper, a roughly 10-year-old tabby that Stear admittedly suffocated after a friend allegedly broke the cat's neck in a failed attempt to euthanize the sick animal. As it turns out, it's against the law to kill an animal under such circumstances.
"The whole idea is we're supposed to humanely euthanize animals," said Richard Gerbasi, vice president of Lollypop Farm, which conducted the animal cruelty investigation that led to the charges against Stear, 31, and her friend Shane Searchfield, 35. "You can't break a cat's neck and then smother it. Breaking an animal's neck is not euthanasia."
The story of Pepper's death began when Stear arrived home from work on Dec. 1, 2005. The cat's health had been declining for several days, and Stear had made an appointment with a veterinarian. But when Stear arrived at her Flanders Street home, the cat was clearly dying from what she later learned was liver failure. Stear said she didn't know there was such a thing as 24-hour emergency animal hospitals, so she thought the cat would suffer three more days until the vet appointment. She said a male friend who was visiting her house that night said he knew how to kill an animal quickly and painlessly by breaking its neck. After breaking the cat's neck, though, the man quickly realized he had failed to kill the animal, Stear said. "That was where I had to step in. I just tried to end it as quickly as I could. I thought what I was doing was perfectly legal."
Stear related the tale of Pepper's death on her Web log, an online journal that can be accessed by her closest friends. One of her friends posted the entry on a more public Internet forum. That led to an anonymous tip to the Lollypop Farm animal cruelty investigators, who are New York state peace officers with the authority to make arrests and carry weapons. After an investigation that included an autopsy of Pepper's remains, Stear and Searchfield were charged last week with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony that can carry a two-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.
Searchfield was arraigned last week and is being held in the Monroe County Jail because he had an outstanding warrant for an unrelated charge. Stear was issued a summons to appear for an arraignment. References |
