Animal cruelty cases on sharp rise among teens

July 20, 3:37 AMNorfolk Crime ExaminerDave Gibson

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Tiger Lily

A few days ago, in a Bronx, NY courtroom Cheyenne Cherry, 17, pleaded guilty to charges of animal cruelty and attempted burglary, in the killing of her former roommate's cat.

On May 6, Cherry and another juvenile broke into the apartment of Valerie Hernandez. The pair stole DVDs and vandalized the apartment, they also threw Hernandez’s kitten Tiger Lily into a 500-degree oven before fleeing.

Upon her arrest, Cherry told police that causing the agonizing death for the helpless kitten was “just a joke.”

The pleas bargain will keep Cherry in jail for a year.

In 2008, Cherry was arrested for using a BB gun to steal a teacup Yorkshire Terrier, in a separate incident, she robbed a man at gunpoint for his iPod.

Faced with a crowd of animal lovers outside the courtroom, Cherry grinned at shouted profanities at the crowd. The unrepentant teenager turned to one protester and screamed “it’s dead bitch.”

While Cheyenne Cherry is disgusting and her crime unconscionable, it is only the latest in string of animal cruelty cases committed by teenagers.

What follows is a short and frightening list of some of those cases:

-June 2009, a Miami, FL teenager was arrested for a month-long string of cat mutilations. Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18, was charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary.

For a month, people in the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods reported the gruesome discovery of the bodies of more than two dozen cats. Many of the cats had been skinned.

Area resident Thomas Shad, whose cat, Miss Kitty, was also killed, told reporters: "It's shocking to think that someone who lives right here and is our neighbor could do something like this.”

-May 2009, police in Hampton, VA seized seven pit bulls from a house and charged Tyrik Clarence Cain, 18, with operating a dog fighting ring. Police found injured dogs and pieces of equipment commonly used in dog fighting.

Police had been investigating the operation since January, when two dead pit bulls were discovered in a nearby dumpster. Both dogs had been shot in the head.

-April 2009, Robert Cummings, 18, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor first-degree animal abuse for killing a duck the previous October, at Corvallis's Starker Arts Park in Oregon.

Cummings, told the court that he and four friends used a homemade blowgun and razor-tipped "arrows." They injured a duck and one of the other teens killed it by wringing its neck.

-March 2009, two teenage boys who claim to be skinheads were arrested for torturing and then shooting a dog to death in the woods behind the New Albany Elementary School in Cinnaminson, NJ.

The two, ages 15 and 17, were charged with animal cruelty, possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon on school property.

The black Labrador Retriever was found by two other children who were riding bicycles in the woods behind the school. They noticed something sticking out of the ground, it was the body of the dog with a cord around his neck.

A necropsy was performed on the dog’s remains at Animal Emergency Service of South Jersey in Mount Laurel, at which time it was determined that in addition to being tortured, the dog had been shot at point-blank range in its skull with a .22-caliber firearm.

-July 2008, police in Philadelphia arrested a 12-year-old boy after he killed a neighbor's cat by throwing it off a roof and then beating it to death with a rock.
 
In 2008, violent attacks on animals by teens became so numerous in the city of Philadelphia that the Pennsylvania SPCA launched an anti-cruelty hotline at the beginning of 2009. PSPCA officials say they have received at least 30 calls a day since announcing the hotline (1-866-601-SPCA).

Not only is the abuse of animals a cruel and inexcusable act in itself, but many studies have shown that it is a predictor of future violence which will be carried out against humans. The fact is that children who torture and kill animals are much more likely to eventually direct this behavior toward people.

Lt. Col. Sy Goldberg of the NJ SPCA said recently: "Abusing animals is how it starts. When you take abuse out on an animal it usually eventually leads to similar actions against humans."

According to a 1997 study conducted by the Massachusetts SPCA and Northeastern University, those who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people

The FBI has been studying the connection between animal abuse and violent crime against people since the 1970s, when they noticed a pattern of animal abuse among serial killers.

Albert DeSalvo, known as the "Boston Strangler," killed 13 women before his killing streak ended. As a boy, he trapped dogs and cats in orange crates and shot arrows through the boxes

Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, whose shooting spree left12 classmates dead before killing themselves, often bragged about torturing and mutilating animals to their friends.

Perhaps, most notably, infamous serial killer Jeffery Dahmer frequently abused and mutilated animals as a teenager, impaling and beheading dogs, cats, and frogs and other small animals. Eventually becoming bored with four-legged victims, he of course, turned his murderous attention to humans.

It has often been said that a society can be judged by the way they treat their animals. It must also be said that if this disturbing trend continues, we can expect a wave of violence in this country as never seen before. As we have seen demonstrated, a lack of respect for the life of one creature can easily lead to a lack of respect for the lives of all creatures.