A 48-year-old Florida man was arrested and charged for animal cruelty after he allegedly killed two kittens and tried to drown another in a twisted punishment for his daughter.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said deputies visited the home of David Charette Jr. on Wednesday after receiving a 911 call that he was attempting to drown and beat his 14-year-old daughter’s 2-month-old kitten.
Police body camera video showed one of the deputies holding the kitten, named Luna, as Charette tried to defend his actions.
“Cat’s in perfectly healthy condition,” he could be heard saying in the video, taken outside of his home.
“I have to give the cat a bath because it soils itself in the cage. So, it’s covered in crap and I have to give it a bath, and it cry and she doesn’t like that.”
But Charette’s daughter told deputies that Charette assaulted the kitten with a bottle of nail polish and placed her inside a clothes dryer on Aug. 1, according to CBS affiliate WINK.
Witnesses reportedly told deputies that Charette had a habit of abusingand killing the family pets to punish his daughter because she would “act up,” authorities said.
Charette was accused of killing two kittens within the last year.
In June, Charette allegedly beat a 1-month-old kitten and wrapped it in a rag soaked with bleach.
He also allegedly killed a 3-month-old kitten after burning it with a blow dryer in November.
Both kittens were believed to have been buried in the backyard, but only one was found during an extensive search of the home, officials said.
The deputies took Luna to a nearby animal hospital, where she was treated and is recovering.
Three adult cats were also removed from the home as part of the investigation.
“A daughter says that when she acts up or when she’s in trouble, her father kills her kittens. This is sickening to me,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.
Witnesses told deputies that Charette Jr. would often abuse and kill the family pets to punish his daughter for “acting up.”
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