{"id":103485,"date":"2026-01-02T18:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:10:07","slug":"man-allegedly-admits-to-strangling-cat-after-claiming-it-choked-on-hairball-deputies-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103485\/","title":{"rendered":"Man allegedly admits to strangling cat after claiming it choked on hairball, deputies say"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man who allegedly denied harming two cats later admitted to strangling one of them, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Deputies first responded on December 23, to a home on Bella Vista Way in Port St. Lucie after two cats were found dead in a dumpster. Deputies approached Russell John Hunter, 28, who told investigators he had nothing to do with their deaths, and no arrest was made at that time.<\/p>\n

Hours later, staff at a facility reported Hunter confessed during an intake assessment to killing a cat, named Dean, after it scratched him during play. In a subsequent interview, Hunter waived his Miranda rights and explained that he \u201cjust wanted Dean to like him.\u201d He later wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t hate him, I miss him already.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: ‘Nothing?’: Advocates question Florida\u2019s new bare-bones animal abuse database<\/a><\/p>\n

A veterinary examination revealed signs consistent with strangulation, including bruising and hemorrhaging in the eyes, contradicting Hunter\u2019s earlier claim that the cat choked on a hairball, according to the probable cause affidavit. Hunter was arrested without incident and booked into the St. Lucie County Jail for animal cruelty and perjury for providing contradictory statements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man who allegedly denied harming two cats later admitted to strangling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10238,353,53812,53815,30861,171,173,172,53813,1402,53814],"class_list":{"0":"post-103485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-animal-abuse","9":"tag-animal-cruelty","10":"tag-cat-strangulation","11":"tag-miranda-rights","12":"tag-perjury","13":"tag-port-st-lucie","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","15":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","16":"tag-russell-john-hunter","17":"tag-st-lucie-county","18":"tag-veterinary-examination"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}