Christopher Lang, 33, and Lori Tasney, 36, both of Hunt Street in Quincy, face criminal charges of cruelty to an animal and conspiring to commit cruelty to an animal.
Lang and Tasney both pleaded innocent to charges in Quincy District Court at their arraignment Oct. 10.
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| RIP Kitty |
Their lawyer, Karen Wayne, did not return calls from The Patriot Ledger seeking comment. The couple are due back in court Nov. 7.
The cat, which belonged to Dana Hamilton, 29, and her father, Richard Babineau, 70, who live on Sea Street, suffered broken bones and burns, according to documents in Quincy District Court.
“This cat died after repeated blunt force trauma and hyperthermia with bruising to the head and face, broken teeth, bleeding into the eyes and pulmonary contusions,” wrote Martha Smith-Blackmore, a veterinarian at the Animal Rescue League of Boston, who performed a post-mortem exam of the cat after Quincy police requested help with the investigation.
The injuries were “consistent with having been tumbled to death in a dryer,” Blackmore’s summary report of the necropsy concluded.
Police reports in Quincy District Court said Lang and Tasney were guests in Hamilton’s house on April 30 and May 1, baby-sitting Hamilton’s 2-year-old daughter and spending the night while Hamilton worked.
On the afternoon of May 1, police reports said that after Lang and Tasney left the house on Sea Street, Hamilton noticed that her 5-year-old cat, named Kitty, was missing.
At about 6 p.m. May 1, Hamilton found her cat dead outside by the bulkhead door to the basement, police reports said. Hamilton told police that Kitty was an indoor cat and that she noticed that the bulkhead door was unlocked, an entryway she said is always locked.
Hamilton called Quincy police two days later after she went to use the dryer in her basement and found the lint trap was full of cat fur, the police report stated.
Police took the lint trap with the fur as evidence and exhumed the body of the cat, which Hamilton’s father had buried in the yard.
Hamilton told police that when she first questioned Tasney about her cat being found dead, Tasney “told her that within the past few years, 7-9 cats that have been close to Christopher (Lang) have all died unnatural deaths,” the police report stated. “Lori (Tasney) told her that Christopher has a history of mental illness and specifically animal cruelty.”
Police have also charged Tasney and Lang with stealing $399 in cash from Hamilton’s house. Both pleaded innocent to those charges also.
After their arraignment earlier this month in Quincy District Court, Lang was freed on $10,000 cash bail, and Tasney was released on $5,000 cash bail.
Quincy police Detective Thomas Pepdjonovic, who investigated the case against Lang and Tasney, is also the lead investigator into the Puppy Doe case. Puppy Doe is the name given to the pit bull that was found in Quincy on Aug. 31 with multiple injuries, including dislocated limbs, bone fractures, a split tongue and a stab wound. The dog was so seriously hurt she had to be destroyed.
Police have made no arrests in the case.
At a vigil in September for Puppy Doe, state Rep. Bruce Ayers, D-Quincy, called for harsher penalties for animal abusers.
“The fact of the matter is that the current laws in Massachusetts are not tough enough to protect our animals,” said Ayers, who filed animal-abuse legislation in January.
The Animal Rescue League of Boston said that last year its investigators worked with police and animal control officers in the region to investigate more than 1,500 cases of animal cruelty.
Hamilton said last night that Kitty was pure-bred Ragdoll breed who had won blue ribbons at pet shows.
“When they were reading the autopsy, I was crying,” Hamilton said Monday night. “Her eyes were burnt. It was just awful.”
(The Patriot Ledger - Oct 22, 2013)
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