{"id":366697,"date":"2026-08-09T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:20:09","slug":"florida-man-allegedly-kills-familys-kittens-in-front-of-teenage-daughter-as-form-of-punishment-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366697\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man allegedly kills family’s kittens in front of teenage daughter as form of punishment: officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida<\/a> father was arrested this week for allegedly killing the family’s kittens in front of his teenage daughter as a form of punishment, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Bodycam video released by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies responding to a home in Pine Manor after receiving a report that a man was attempting to drown and strike a two-month-old kitten named Luna.<\/p>\n

David Charette Jr., 48, was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty<\/a> after authorities accused him of killing two kittens and injuring a third.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told deputies that Charette allegedly abused and killed the family’s kittens in front of his teenage daughter as a form of punishment when she “acted up.”<\/p>\n

‘Deeply Disturbing’ Animal Cruelty Operation Involving Baby Monkeys Busted By Ice Investigation<\/a><\/p>\n

Charette defended his treatment of Luna while speaking with deputies in the body camera video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n

“The cat is in perfectly healthy condition,” Charette told deputies. “I have to give the cat a bath because it soils itself in the cage.”<\/p>\n

“It’s covered in crap and I have to give it a bath, and it cries, and she doesn’t like that,” he added.<\/p>\n

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the allegations involving Charette’s daughter made the case particularly disturbing.<\/p>\n

Florida Mail Carrier Accused Of Snatching Pets On Route, Trapping 100-Plus Cats And Dogs In ‘Hoarding’ House<\/a><\/p>\n

“A daughter says that when she acts up or when she’s in trouble, her father kills her kittens. This is sickening to me,” Marceno told CBS affiliate WINK.<\/p>\n

Investigators<\/a> said they later learned Charette had allegedly killed two other kittens over the previous year.<\/p>\n

In June, Charette allegedly smothered a one-month-old kitten with a bleach-soaked rag, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

In a separate incident, investigators said Charette allegedly killed a three-month-old kitten with a blow-dryer.<\/p>\n

Authorities said both kittens had been buried in the backyard, but investigators recovered only one during a search of the property.<\/p>\n

Click Here To Download The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n

Luna was taken to a local animal hospital for treatment and is recovering, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

Original article source: Florida man allegedly kills family’s kittens in front of teenage daughter as form of punishment: officials<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida father was arrested this week for allegedly killing the family’s kittens in front of his teenage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[148714,148712,28,30,29,110328,148713,90913,3993,148711],"class_list":["post-366697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-charette","tag-david-charette","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-kittens","tag-lee-county-sheriff-carmine-marceno","tag-lee-county-sheriff39s-office","tag-punishment","tag-teenage-daughter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366697","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=366697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}