{"id":311844,"date":"2026-06-18T15:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311844\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:13:09","slug":"fort-lauderdale-couple-accused-of-killing-cat-through-involuntary-heat-exposure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311844\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale couple accused of killing cat through \u2018involuntary heat exposure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0June 18, 2026 at 10:49 AM<\/p>\n<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Updated:\u00a0June 18, 2026 at 10:58 AM<\/p>\n<p>lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FZVS2GYFSVGG5K4KZY7ST75LFI.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/>(Broward Sheriff&#8217;s Office) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  \u2014 A Fort Lauderdale couple is accused of killing their pet cat through \u201cinvoluntary heat exposure,\u201d their arrest affidavits stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/06\/18\/acusan-a-pareja-de-fort-lauderdale-de-matar-a-gato-por-exposicion-involuntaria-al-calor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/06\/18\/acusan-a-pareja-de-fort-lauderdale-de-matar-a-gato-por-exposicion-involuntaria-al-calor\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Records show Jennifer Armenti, 36, was arrested Wednesday by Miramar police while her boyfriend, Brett Anthony Bellera, 25, was charged in the case earlier this month as he was already being held in the Joseph V. Conte facility on other charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Both are now charged with aggravated cruelty to animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to their arrest affidavits, a friend of the couple notified Broward County Animal Care on Dec. 15, 2024, that the couple\u2019s cat named Reaper had been found dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said Armenti claimed that she woke up and found Reaper dead on the bathroom floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When Animal Care employees showed up, they said they found Reaper\u2019s body on the back patio inside a plastic laundry basket and a large amount of blood pooling on the bottom of the basket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Bellera claimed the cat may have ingested cleaning products, his arrest affidavit stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to the affidavits, the cat\u2019s body was sent to the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals where a forensic necropsy was performed and revealed that Reaper had died from \u201cinvoluntary heat exposure\u201d through either microwave radiation, being submerged in hot water or exposure to hot water vapor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said the analysis by a veterinarian indicated that the cat did not die immediately, but suffered severe pain and suffering prior to his death.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Amanda Batchelor\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/83776d46-011c-4018-ab.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Amanda Batchelor<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0June 18, 2026 at 10:49 AM Updated:\u00a0June 18, 2026 at 10:58 AM lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand(Broward Sheriff&#8217;s Office) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-311844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311844","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=311844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}