Australia: Family devastated after their cat Pearl is mauled to death inside their own garage

AUSTRALIA -- A shaken family has urged owners to keep their pets indoors after a brutal dog attack resulted in the “heartbreaking” death of their beloved cat.

Kathleen Dawe watched her three-year-old Ragdoll-cross-Himalayan cat “Pearl” die in her arms from internal injuries after two dogs attacked in the open garage of her Kooringal home around 6am on Anzac Day.

I can't bear to look at this photo. The pain and confusion
in her eyes.. 'Mommy what happened to me?' It must
be a horrible, helpless feeling knowing you can't do
anything for your baby who's dying in your arms.

Ms Dawe’s daughter Maddison Salmon heard noises and ran to Pearl’s rescue, as one of the dogs jumped on Miss Salmon, attempting to attack her arm.

Miss Salmon kicked one dog away before watching on in helpless horror as Pearl was viciously pinned down.

Pearl as a baby

“My daughter said she wishes she had been bitten because then these dogs might be put down,” Ms Dawe said.

“Being an animal, people don’t see it in the same light but it was absolutely horrifying.”

 

 

An indoor cat, the family left Pearl outdoors after she had snuck out during the night and couldn’t be coaxed inside.

“I keep thinking what if she hadn’t of been outside that morning, what if the garage had been finished and the dogs couldn’t get through,” Ms Dawe said.

“None of the 'what ifs' will bring her back though.”

Ms Dawe said the family weren’t the only victims of the vicious incident, claiming a neighbor’s cat was also killed on the same morning, matching the description of the two attacking dogs.

“I want to find the dogs who did this; someone needs to take responsibility for them,” Ms Dawe said.

“I want to remind others to keep their pets inside and always keep a close eye on them. There are memories of Pearl everywhere we walk.”

(Daily Advertiser - April 27, 2017)

In Massachusetts, when you kill a cat by cooking it to death in a dryer, you get probation

MASSACHUSETTS -- A Quincy woman will serve probation after pleading guilty to animal cruelty in the 2013 death of a cat killed in a clothes dryer.

“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” 

On Monday, Lori Tasney, 38, changed her plea in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham to a count of animal cruelty, a count of killing, maiming or poisoning an animal and a count of larceny over $250. However, Tasney didn’t concede to all of the facts in the case against her.

Tasney, whose trial was set to start Tuesday, is already on probation through April 2017 for a separate criminal case out of Suffolk County, said David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

Following Tasney’s guilty plea Monday, Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone added two conditions to Tasney’s existing probation – that she receive mental-health evaluations and she abstain from drugs and alcohol.

It is disgusting that they gave this odious woman probation after torturing this poor animal to death.

Tasney’s co-defendant in the animal-cruelty case, Christopher Lang, 35, of Quincy, pleaded guilty to the same three counts last year and was sentenced to three years in jail in conjunction with his guilty pleas in a separate case on charges of breaking and entering and larceny.

Prosecutors said Lang put a cat in a clothes dryer in early May 2013 while Lang and Tasney were guests in a Sea Street home in Quincy. The cat, named Kitty, was later found dead outside near the basement door, court documents said.

Lori Tasney and Chris Lang look into each others eyes as Marilyn and Daniel Haldeman hold each other at the end of a visit. Tasney and Lang have been dating for two years and plan to marry when he gets out. His current parole date is set for 2008. Lang was imprisoned for robbery in January 2005. Tasney visits twice a week, which is the most time any inmate is allowed visitors, but says “I would visit every day if I could.” --
Prison Photography - Elyse Butler

Prior to her guilty plea, Tasney asserted that she was not aware of the cat’s whereabouts when Lang put the animal in the dryer. Her defense attorneys were Natalie Corvington and Sandra Gant.

The prosecutor was Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cusick.

Tasney’s case was scheduled to start earlier this year, but it was delayed after her lawyers questioned her competency. In a court motion filed in April, defense attorneys said Tasney nodded off repeatedly during the jury-selection process, wrote indecipherable notes to herself and did not seem to remember which jurors were selected or why.

Tasney underwent a competency evaluation and was deemed fit to stand trial.

The death of Kitty was one of two high-profile animal cruelty cases out of Quincy in 2013. In October of that year, Radoslaw Czerkawski, a Polish national, was arrested and charged in the death of Puppy Doe, the name given to the pit bull that police say was brutally tortured in a Whitwell Street home.

Cusick, who has been involved in animal-cruelty prosecutions since 2001, is also the prosecutor in the Czerkawski case.

(Patriot Ledger - Nov 30, 2015)

Earlier:

• Quincy couple accused of killing cat in dryer
• Lawyers question alleged cat killer's competency

Lawyers question alleged cat killer's competency

MASSACHUSETTS -- Lawyers for a Quincy woman accused of killing a cat in a dryer have raised questions about her competency to stand trial after she behaved strangely during jury selection earlier this week.

In a motion filed Wednesday, the lawyers said Lori Tasney nodded off repeatedly during the process, wrote indecipherable notes to herself and did not seem to remember which jurors were selected or why. In response, the court ordered Tasney to undergo a competency evaluation and postponed her trial until August.

Tasney was one of two people arrested on animal cruelty charges in 2013 after a Sea Street woman found her cat’s bludgeoned body outside her house. Tasney’s co-defendant, Christopher Lang, was sentenced to three years in prison in December after pleading guilty in two cases, including the animal-cruelty case.

Prosecutors allege that Lang put the cat in a clothes dryer while Lang and Tasney were guests in the Sea Street home. Tasney’s lawyers have argued that she was not aware of the cat’s whereabouts when Lang put the animal in the dryer, and therefore she should be acquitted.

Jury selection in Tasney’s trial began Tuesday, but one of her lawyers said in an affidavit filed the next day that Tasney appeared to be “in physical and mental distress” and had trouble staying awake through the process.

“Though I was able to occasionally converse with Ms. Tasney, I do not believe she was able to meaningfully participate in the selection of jurors in her case,” the attorney, Sandra Gant, said in the affidavit. “I do not believe she is able to recall who was ultimately seated on her jury, nor is she able to recall who was excused or why.”

The motion also included three pages of Tasney’s “notes” from jury selection, each of them marked with an illegible scattering of cut-off words, half sentences and random scribbles. One of the only legible portions read: “My life is a mess.”

Tasney’s trial is scheduled to resume Aug. 17.

(Wicked Local Quincy - Apr 17, 2015)

Earlier:

• Quincy couple accused of killing cat in dryer

Quincy couple accused of killing cat in dryer

MASSACHUSETTS -- A Quincy couple who police believe killed a cat last spring by putting it in a clothes dryer are due to return to court next month.

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.

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)

Gilbert police found dead cats in ice chest

ARIZONA -- Dozens of cats have been removed from a Gilbert home in what police say is a hoarding case.

 Gilbert police spokesperson Jesse Sanger said there were at least 28 expensive cats that Jill Hopper, 45, was breeding and a few are even somewhat famous. Two of her cats were in actor Denzel Washington's movie The Book of Eli.

Hopper is a breeder of Ragdoll, Himalayan and Persian cats.

The Gilbert Fire Department was called to the townhouse in the 1600 block of East Lakeside Drive, near Val Vista and Baseline roads Thursday because of a reported smell of ammonia. They checked the levels and they were much higher than they should have been.

"The smell was overwhelming ... tested air quality, safe is 15 parts ... they read 50 parts inside the residence," Sanger said.

The Gilbert Fire Department has condemned Hopper's home due to toxic levels of ammonia. Cleanup crews had to wear masks and were limited to 15 minutes inside the condominium to work.

Gilbert police said several cats were dead and were packed in an ice chest.

The cats were sold on the website, Dixie Willow Ragdoll Cats [as of 9/27/13, site shut down], but are now going to the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control west shelter.

Melissa Gable with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control said the cats have been taken to a county shelter. She said Hopper has not signed the cats over to the facility so there will likely be a court case.

Police have charged Hopper with animal cruelty.

(KPHO - Sept 26, 2013)

Although she shut down her website, there are still ads advertising her as a breeder on other sites:

Dixie Willow Ragdolls
Breed Type: Ragdoll
Services Provided: Breeding
Description: Sweet, floppy Ragdoll cats and kittens who are spoiled rotten from the very beginning.

Grand Champion bloodlines with a special emphasis on temperament and health; we have all colors and patterns including lynx. Although our Ragdolls have become therapy cats, successful show cats, and made a number of television & movie appearances, they are loved as pets first and foremost.

Kittens and young adults available occasionally to select homes who will spoil them as they have come to expect. :-)

Contact:
Website: www.DixieWillow.com
Name: Dixie Willow Ragdolls
Location: Arizona
City: Phoenix

Letter: Killer dogs shouldn't get a second chance

FLORIDA -- On Friday, Nov. 24, a pit bull tore into our screened porch and dragged our inside 16-pound ragdoll cat through the screen and tortured him to death! Police were called, but nothing could be done! Animal control was very nice and said all they could do is give the owners a warning about letting dog run loose. This vicious dog lives in our neighborhood. My Georgie was so innocent.

Anyone who knows ragdoll cats know they have to be kept indoors as they do not defend themselves, so he was always, and I mean always, kept inside.

The screened porch is part of our home and this vicious dog tore through it and invaded our home.

If we were home we could have shot the dog from trying to get in our home. A neighbor saw this dog near our screened porch that morning. Also this dog had came around a few weeks earlier and growled at our screened door and my husband chased him off. This dog came back just for the kill!

The owners never even apologized to us. I am literally ill over this.

Now from what we understand unless this dog attacks twice nothing can be done, that’s even if he attacks a child, unless he kills a person they get another chance. It makes me ill. This law needs to be changed. They do not deserve a second chance.

(St. Augustine Record - Dec 9, 2012)