![\"Queens](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/woodhaven-man-animal-cruelty-killed-cat-glendale01.webp.jpeg\")
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Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz secured a grand jury indictment against a Woodhaven man for allegedly torturing his girlfriend\u2019s cat in what she called one of the most gratuitously violent deaths ever seen in the borough. <\/p>\n
File photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n
Police from the 104th Precinct<\/a> responded to a 911 all of a domestic dispute in mid-January and arrested a Woodhaven<\/a> man who was in the Glendale<\/a> home of his girlfriend for allegedly stretching her cat to death during an argument. <\/p>\n Jalen Gonzalez, 23, of 80th Street, was arraigned Tuesday in Queens Supreme Court on a grand jury indictment charging him with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal mischief and other related crimes. The defendant allegedly pulled the cat by her head and leg and left the animal with a partial internal decapitation and other injuries, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.<\/p>\n According to the charges and investigation, just after midnight on Jan. 12, Gonzalez and his girlfriend, who was also a co-worker, were in her residence at an apartment building in the vicinity of 65th Place and Central Avenue. Gonzalez allegedly became inebriated and refused to leave her home. He grabbed the woman\u2019s leg and squeezed it. The woman pulled herself away, left the apartment and called a relative for help. <\/p>\n When the woman returned to her apartment with her uncle about 20 minutes later, Gonzalez was seen sitting on her couch holding her cat named Kitty by her neck and hind leg. The defendant was allegedly stretching the animal apart. Kitty\u2019s back legs were mangled and broken, and the animal had blood on her mouth, head and body. Gonzalez\u2019s shirt was saturated with blood, and both blood spatter and vomit were present on the ceiling, walls and floor of the room. Gonzalez was arrested at the scene by police from the 104th Precinct. <\/p>\n The investigation was conducted by Officer Daniel Fisher who found Kitty on the floor with what appeared to be a broken hind leg, a stretched-out neck, and blood on her head, mouth and body, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n \u201cThis animal endured one of the most gratuitously violent deaths that we have ever seen in the borough of Queens,\u201d Katz said. \u201cAs alleged, defendant Gonzalez was upset with his girlfriend and turned his ire on the woman\u2019s pet, named Kitty. The 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 A forensic veterinarian performed a necropsy on Kitty and determined the animal suffers a crushed skull, flattened on one side with dozens of fractures present; a jaw fractured in multiple places and missing teeth; eyes protruding from both sockets, her right eye ruptured; a torn diaphragm; fractures to 24 ribs; a torn artery leading to Kitty\u2019s heart; torn or lacerated liver, spleen and kidneys; and a shattered pelvis, with both of her hind legs fractured.<\/p>\n \u201cNo animal or person should ever suffer this way,\u201d Katz said.\n<\/p>\n Gonzalez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment before Queens Supreme Court Justice Diego Freire who ordered him to return to court on July 21. If convicted, Gonzalez faces up to two years in jail. The charges are not bail eligible under New York State law and he was released.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is another example of why New York needs stronger animal cruelty laws to permit appropriate penalties in such cases,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz secured a grand jury indictment against a Woodhaven man for allegedly torturing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[73149,6343,73150,15310,73151,9,24,63,122,5193,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-181344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-aggravated-cruelty-to-animals","9":"tag-animal-cruelty","10":"tag-cat-killer","11":"tag-criminal-mischief","12":"tag-jalen-gonzalez","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-queens-district-attorney-melinda-katz","18":"tag-queens-headlines","19":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181344","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=181344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}