- April 23, 2024
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A 61-year-old man strangled his family’s pet cat and stabbed it with a box cutter, killing it, according to Sheriff’s Office deputies.
The man, who had recently been released after an involuntary psychiatric hold, is charged with aggravated animal cruelty causing death.
The man’s wife had called Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies to the family’s Lee Drive home at around 1 a.m. March 23.
Deputies found the cat in a pool of blood in its litter box, a belt around its neck, according to the man’s arrest report.
The man’s wife told deputies she’d awoken because she heard her cat’s cries. She followed the sound to the shut bathroom door and realized that her husband and the cat were inside.
She said her husband told her through the door not to come in because the cat was going to hurt her. She went to the porch to stay away from her husband. When she came back inside, she saw blood on the floor but could not find her cat.
Though she told deputies she had not feared for her safety, she grabbed a knife as a precaution while she waited on the patio, according to the report.
The man was scratched and blood-smeared when deputies spoke with him. He admitted that he’d strangled and stabbed the cat and placed it in the litter box, according to the arrest report.
The man told deputies the cat was going to hurt his wife.
A few weeks before the incident, the man had been taken to a mental health facility under the Baker Act, which allows for people deemed a threat to themselves or others to be held temporarily for psychological evaluation.
Deputies who responded to the cat killing found that the man met Baker Act criteria again, due to harming the cat and wanting to harm himself.
Deputies filed paperwork for a Baker Act, and the man was taken to the county jail.
