Oregon man gets just 10 days in jail for breaking cat's back and killing it

OREGON -- Timothy Ahrens (aka Timothy John Ahrens) of Eugene is both an expectant father and a convicted animal abuser.

It’s a link that Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché referenced Friday when he sentenced Ahrens to jail and probation for breaking a pet cat’s back, an injury that forced a veterinarian to euthanize the ­animal last month.

 “It’s not a large step to go from cruelly treating an animal to cruelly treating a child,” Zennaché said in court, shortly after learning that Ahrens’s wife is pregnant.

Before being sentenced, the 28-year-old Ahrens pleaded guilty to one felony count of first-degree aggravated animal abuse. Prosecutors dismissed a second animal-abuse count as part of a plea deal.

In accordance with the agreement, Zennaché sentenced Ahrens to 10 days in jail and two years probation. He also banned Ahrens from owning any pets for the next 15 years.

Ahrens has been held in the Lane County Jail since Sept. 25, after Eugene police received information that Ahrens had broken his wife’s cat’s back about one week earlier.

Prosecutor Debra Stoll-­Underwood said in court that Ahrens’s father and stepmother told police Ahrens has been abusing animals since he was a child, and “that he doesn’t like cats.”

But Ahrens was the person who took the cat, named ­Charlee, to a veterinarian after it was injured. And he admitted to police that he had “messed up” and was responsible for breaking the animal’s back, Stoll-­Underwood said.

He apologized in court for the crime.

“I’m sincerely and deeply sorry,” Ahrens said. He added that after being arrested he lost his job working as a caregiver for people with developmental disabilities.

Ahrens’ attorney, Laura Fine Moro of Eugene, said in court that her client now is pursuing counseling for himself. Zen­naché urged Ahrens to follow through on a treatment plan.
  
Some studies have suggested that people who abuse animals are more likely than others to abuse children or domestic partners.

The Associated Press reported this week that the FBI has decided to make animal cruelty a stand-alone crime category in its annual crime reports, listing it the same way as it does crimes such as homicide, arson and assault.

 In the past, the FBI has lumped animal abuse into a general category of lesser crimes, making it difficult to track.

(Register Guard - Oct 4, 2014)