QUEENS, NY \u2014 A Queens man tortured and brutally killed his ex\u2011girlfriend\u2019s cat in what prosecutors called one of the \u201cmost violent\u201d pet deaths in the borough. <\/p>\n
Jalen Gonzalez, 23, faces animal cruelty charges after authorities said he became drunk and refused to leave his girlfriend\u2019s apartment. <\/p>\n
He then grabbed the woman\u2019s leg and squeezed it. When she pulled away and left the apartment to call a relative for help, Gonzalez turned on her cat, named Kitty, authorities said. <\/p>\n
The attack occurred in January, officials said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis animal endured one of the most gratuitously violent deaths that we have ever seen in the borough of Queens,” said Melinda Katz, district attorney for Queens, in a statement. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that by the time she returned with her uncle, Gonzalez was holding Kitty by her neck and hind legs, stretching her apart. The attack left the cat\u2019s back legs mangled and broken and bloodied her mouth, head and body, officials said. <\/p>\n
“This is another horrifying example of why New York needs stronger animal cruelty laws to permit appropriate penalties in such cases.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gonzalez was arrested at the scene by members of the NYPD, and a forensic veterinarian performed a necropsy on Kitty that determined the animal suffered a number of significant injuries, including fractures to 24 of her ribs. <\/p>\n
Gonzalez has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal mischief, attempted assault, and harassment. Supreme Court Justice Diego Freire ordered the defendant to return to court on July 21. <\/p>\n
The charges are not bail\u2011eligible under New York state law, so he was released after pleading not guilty in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday. <\/p>\n
If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEENS, NY \u2014 A Queens man tortured and brutally killed his ex\u2011girlfriend\u2019s cat in what prosecutors called one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-182500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182500","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=182500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}