{"id":181313,"date":"2026-03-31T21:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181313\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:03:38","slug":"man-stretches-girlfriends-cat-to-death-in-queens-severing-head-from-spine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181313\/","title":{"rendered":"Man stretches girlfriend’s cat to death in Queens, severing head from spine"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens woman\u2019s beloved cat was \u201cstretched\u201d to death by her drunken boyfriend<\/a>, who is now charged with animal cruelty<\/a> in the shocking case, prosecutors said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jalen Gonzalez, 23, is accused of killing the cat, named Kitty, at his girlfriend\u2019s home on Jan. 12 after she tried to throw him out.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez threw a drunken fit when she asked him to leave, at one point grabbing her leg and refusing to let go, prosecutors say. The girlfriend managed to pull herself away, fled the apartment and called a relative asking for help.<\/p>\n

When she returned with her uncle, Gonzalez was holding her cat, named Kitty, by her neck and hind legs, stretching her apart, prosecutors charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis animal endured one of the most gratuitously violent deaths that we have ever seen,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. \u201cThe cat was stretched to the point where her head was severed from her spine, and she sustained a crushed skull, fractured jaw and numerous other injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack broke the animal\u2019s legs and resulted in internal damage that caused blood to gush from her mouth, prosecutors say. Gonzalez\u2019s shirt was covered in blood, and blood and vomit was splattered throughout the apartment when he was arrested at the scene that day.<\/p>\n

A necropsy revealed the full extent of Kitty\u2019s horrific injuries. Her teeth were ripped from her mouth, her eyes protruded from both sockets and she suffered tears to her diaphragm, artery, liver, spleen and kidney. Her pelvis was shattered and fractures were detected on 24 ribs.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal mischief, attempted assault and harassment. The charges are not bail eligible, and he was released after pleading not guilty in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The suspect faces up to two years in jail if convicted. He is due back in court July 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo animal or person should ever suffer this way,\u201d Katz said. \u201cThis is another horrifying example of why New York needs stronger animal cruelty laws to permit appropriate penalties in such cases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens woman\u2019s beloved cat was \u201cstretched\u201d to death by her drunken boyfriend, who is now charged with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-181313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}