April 15, 2004
Cat Cruelty Arrest
Bay Ridge resident James Whalen, a 35 year-old bike messenger, was arrested after he had tortured and beat his girlfriend's tabby cat to death while she was gone. He was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, which is a felony and the most severe animal abuse charge in the state. His girlfriend's mother found the cat, Darwin, who "had been repeatedly beaten about the face, and had bloody eyes, a broken jaw and a broken tail" (NY Post). The vets at Brooklyn Veterinary Emergency Service contacted the ASPCA when he saw the trauma and broken tail; Dr. Brett Levitsky said, "There had to be repeated strikes, mostly likely from someone's fists." The ASPCA had noted Darwin had been abused twice before, and after investigating the entire incident, ASPCA Special Agent Joseph Pentangelo arrested Whalen. The motive for the beating is not clear, though Special Agent Pentangelo said that Whalen clearly beat Whalen out of anger, and Whalen faces a $5,000 as well as prison time.
This is a horrible case, but it reinforces both the importance of the ASPCA, which is a resource to educate people about how to take care of their animals, as well as find people who mistreat them, and the fact that animal cruelty is not tolerated. Gothamist has seen Special Agent Pentangelo has arrested people people, as one of our favorite shows is Animal Precinct on Animal Planet. His bio is here (here's the ASPCA's page on the show as well).
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this story reminds me of the time that dipshit spam poster jack s. posted a comment on bluejake about wanting to hit my cat in the face with a shovel. when i read that a part of me wanted to hit him in the face with a shovel.
that sucks. i hope the rules of prison society banish him to become someone's bitch. i must confess though that sometimes my cats shenanigans drive me to drink. i hope this guy gets 5 yrs.
Terrible. It's difficult to comprehend how someone could use their fists on an animal.
I disapprove of his very existence.
It's sad to say but many people that go on to inflict violence on people start out as pet abusers and then move up the food chain, so to speak. When I heard the story on the 11:00 O'clock news I thought...I wonder how many people will shrug this off. I hope the fact it's being reported means people take it more seriously than they used to.
sick sad world.
I don't trust anyone with my cats after a bad experience.
The numbers of people who start abusing pets and then move on to abusing and killing people is pretty damn high. Jeffery Dalmer started out killing animals.
I would take a bullet for the cats in my life. I hope this guys gets hurt.
Sniffle. Darwin looked just like my kitty.
He punched a cat. Fucking hilarious! I mean, even though cats annoy the crap out of me, I don't want to see one tortured. But still, the image of some dude punching a kitty cracks me up for some reason. Maybe the cat was asking for it.
"Dude, Kitty, just stay down. Why do this? You know you can't win..."
Sac,
Watch out man. Overserved is training all the cats in New York in Kung-Fu. Your Tai Chi is no match for thousands of feline fusters.
I am not worried. Feline fury is no match for my Tai Chi. They will drop like flies. Slowly.
sac = troll
Internet troll
On the Internet, troll is a slang term for a person who posts messages intended to create controversy or provoke an angry response rather than to add content to a discussion. Like those who engage in flaming, Internet trolls sometimes resort to innuendo or misdirection in the pursuit of their objectives.
Get off my bridge.
It has begun. Beware the wee furred ones. Be. Ware.
http://photo.thetechzone.com/data//514/1951kungfu.jpg?6182
Oh snap sac, Jake exposed you with his excellent detective work!!! run!!
that is the saddest thing. i would hurt someone if they laid a finger on my precious kitties. hurting/killing something so gentle and innocent as an animal constitutes your ass in jail for life! (or the death penalty, however you view it)
The motive for the beating is NOT CLEAR? How about the man is a jackass and deserves to have the crap beat out of him every single day for the rest of his sorry life -- in prison. What a creep. $5000 should go to the ASPCA. This is a sad story, and heartbreaking to read, but thanks for bringing it to light. God love everyone who protects and loves animals, and God help who doesn't.
Question for everybody. I have a neighbor whose boyfriend is a moron. Two weeks ago he tried to 'help' out with one of her cats by cutting a knot out of the cat's hair. He cut a big hole in the cats neck leaving it needing 5 stitches. Last week he was disciplining their puppy after he had pooped on the floor by sticking the dog's nose in it. Somehow, he managed to shatter the puppy's elbow. The girlfriend & I took him to the animal hospital & he is now recovering from elbow replacement surgery. I don't think the boyfriend is malicious or doing this on purpose but it seems like too much of a coincidence that these two things have happened. I feel like maybe I should do something but I am not sure & if I should, I don't know what to do. The girlfriend says she will keep him away from their animals, but I just don't know if that is enough. Any thoughts?
We have the reverse situation.
One of our cats is fearless, appears impervious to pain. Not that we've ever tried to do anything to hurt him, or tested his pain threshold -- the cat's just a bruiser.
He comes walking into the house w/ big open wounds and gashes above his eye after cat fights. He also has a tendency to sleep under warm cars then he burns sections of his fur off. He's always real smooth about it, like it's intentional that half his ear is missing.
Anyway, we have this horrible neighbor who is always knocking on our door insisting that we take him to the vet and telling us that cats should be fed at 6AM and 6PM on the dot. She also feeds him and tries to get him to stay at her house.
We don't want to lock him up indoors, since 95% of the time he's sunning on the porch and smelling the flowers. But his once every three month brawl-n-burns put us in an awkward situation with our overly intrusive and accusatory neighbor.
Last year at this time she had six cats of her own and now she only has one, so who's got the suspicious home life?
All that aside, a puppy with broken bones seems really odd... those little guys are quite rubbery and resilient.
Can't the vet tell the difference between accidental and abusive by examining the injuries ? Those Animal Precinct cops seem very sharp-eyed about that kind of differentiation.
can't stand the creeps on Viva Lam Bam and Jackass simply because they take animals out of their natural environments and subject them to stress just to get a "crazy" reaction.
To me that's a form of torture, sure it's mostly mild but it still encourages irresponsible behavior on the part of humans who are in effect taking advantage of animals that would prefer to be left alone. Just for laughs.
" [...] though Special Agent Pentangelo said that Whalen clearly beat Whalen out of anger."
Er? Second Whalen = Darwin?
Darwin and Huxley are kickass names for cats.
Thank you for your frequent recounting of domestic animal-related news items, both the good and the bad,a s well as your urging for readers to consider adoption of strays. Every bit of media coverage helps raise some awareness.
Horrorific. I had saved your link some months ago and was going through old links of blogs. I saw this item and posted it a short link to it on my site so hopefully it'll get some more exposure..
these animals we bring into our lives are a lot like children. sometimes they are our children. we are responsible for them till the end. how could anyone treat them like this,would you harm your child too?
Oh sherry, cats are not like children, not even remotely, and it's attitudes like yours that only strengthens my resolve to CRUSH ALL CATS.
But seriously, comparing cats and kids is ridiculous. Cats can fare quite nicely without any help from puny humans. I would link you to my amazingly funny and astute post regarding this subject if only Lord Gothamist wasn't afraid of my power.
This piece of horseshit (James Whalen) should be
consistently tortured for a long period of time and finally be burned alive at the stake. If I were legally allowed to put a bullet in his brain, it would be my pleasure to pull the trigger.
look anyone who is cruel to any type of animal (insects not included) deserve to be put in a cage and hit reapeatedly with a ten ton screw driver because it is just sick. stories in todays news make me feel phisically repulsed and i think if you are cruel to your cat you deserve for me to shoot you...... beware you sick bastards!
look anyone who is cruel to any type of animal (insects not included) deserve to be put in a cage and hit reapeatedly with a ten ton screw driver because it is just sick. stories in todays news make me feel phisically repulsed and i think if you are cruel to your cat you deserve for me to shoot you...... beware you sick bastards!
I think anyone who would hurt an animal should have the same thing done to them but much harder. animals are way smaller!i like animals more than people!
Anyone who commits animal crulety should die...i dont no how any1 could do that.
my friend is looking at those pictures and is crying
le plus beau trans du monde 09 trans am
Espero que las leyes mejoren y se prevenga más la crueldad hacia los perros y gatos!
Cero Crueldad hacia las mascotas!
those who are upset about the cruelty of this precious creature please write to the following:
Robert M. Morgenthau
County District Attorney
One Hogan Place
New York, N.Y. 10013
In your letter you should urge Mr. Morgenthau to push for the maximum sentence for Petcka. Please urge all your friends also to write
Thanks
Teresa