Officials say a Brooklyn man beat and tortued a house cat so severely that it had to be put down.
Animal experts say the cat's injuries were comparable to having been dropped from a high-rise building or hit by a car.
The alleged culprit, 31-year-old Lordtyshon Garrett, was arrested Dec. 10 by officers from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) all thanks to DNA evidence.
DNA has been used to convict murderers and free innocent men, but it's certainly rare for it to be used in this manner.
ASPCA investigators linked Garrett's umbrella to the crime by sending it to a lab, which found both the cat's and Garrett's DNA.
Garrett was arraigned a day after his arrest on charges that he used the umbrella to poke, stab and beat his mother-in-law's cat, a 4-year-old, 9-pound tabby named Madea.
The cat apparently tried to fend off the Oct. 12 attack by biting and scratching the umbrella, according to New York Daily News.
There is speculation that Garrett targeted the cat after his mother-in-law, Deborah Bender, told him to find a job and move out of her home, reports the Daily News.
"I'm not having any more kids - some grandkids maybe - but that was my baby right there," Bender told the paper.
When Garrett's cousin questioned him about the cat, prosecutors allege that he quipped, "Damn, I left a smoking gun," according to the Daily News. The paper lists the purported sequence of events, which allegedly involved the 180-plus-pound man chasing the cat around the apartment and poking her with the umbrella.
The cat was taken to the veterinarian's office the next day and put down because of the extent of the injuries, reports WPIX.
Garrett faces a charge of felony animal cruelty. He was arraigned in Brooklyn criminal court and was being held in held in lieu of $3,500 bail.
The ASPCA's says it has only used DNA evidence in a New York case once before.
Related Story: 9 kittens abandoned outside Coney Island firehouse up for adoption
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Comments
this individual must do jail time, he must be shown that society WILL NOT tolerate this type of behavior towards animals, as well as others like him. Remember studies show many sick people start abuse with animals and then move on to humans....he killed a living soul, he should go to jail for it.....
he is nothing but worthless trash, what agony that poor young animal suffered, this monster will never know how unjust he was, and I don't think he will ever care.
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