FLORIDA -- An Altamonte Springs man accused of tearing off the hind legs of a rabbit named Peter was found not guilty Wednesday of animal cruelty.
Brian Oct, 20, denied a woman's story that he "yanked" off the legs of the frightened animal Feb. 14 and held them up "like he was proud of it."
Oct said he had seen a cat 'playing' with a rabbit behind a laundry room at his apartment complex on the day the cruelty supposedly occurred, but that he never touched the rabbit.
A jury of three men and three women deliberated 70 minutes before returning the verdict in Seminole County Court.
Three men and three woman who have their heads up their asses. Just remember, it was a jury in Florida that turned Casey Anthony loose.
"When I was charged I was very upset and angry," Oct said. "I was scared because I had been charged with something I had nothing to do with. I am happy that justice has prevailed."
Susan Heath, a housekeeper at Monterey North Apartments, testified that she saw Oct kill the rabbit as he stood outside with two men. She said the men then yelled that they wanted the rabbit's feet.
Heath said she recognized the animal as Peter, one of four young rabbits that had been living in bushes at the apartment complex. Heath said she had fed the bunnies and given them names.
She reported Oct to police and the Seminole County Humane Society. Oct was charged with cruelty in May. Two other men, Barry Reeves and Mark Eggestine, also were charged but Seminole prosecutors dropped the counts.
Eggestine, who lived with Oct in February, testified that he had scared away a cat eating a dead rabbit and took the rabbit's hind legs to his apartment. He said he later discarded the legs.
Assistant Seminole State Attorney Ian Gilden told jurors that Oct had tortured and mutilated the rabbit and that laws protect all animals, including wild ones.
Oct's attorney, assistant Seminole County public defender David Ege, said that while mutilation of a rabbit is "horrible, it's just as horrible to convict someone of doing something they didn't do."
According to testimony, Oct keeps two kittens, hamsters and fish as pets.
Helen Wolk, president of the humane society, said she could not recall a similar incident in Seminole County and said she was disappointed by the verdict.
(Orlando Sentinel - August 28, 1986)
