Earlier this year, a disturbing video showed a young man kicking a cat high up into the air and then laughing about it. The kicker, Andre Robinson, was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty. Now, as his case is about to go into trial, there's debate about whether the potential sentence is too tough.
After video of Robinson's cruel act was posted on Facebook in May, animal lovers rushed into action, helping identify a phone number seen on scaffolding—leading the police to find the suspect in Brooklyn—and then finding the cat. The cat, named King, recovered from his injuries and was later adopted. Robinson, 21, now faces up to a year in jail if found guilty; he said last week, "It was just a spur of the moment, it just happened. I shouldn’t have done it."
The NY Times has a feature today on how animal rights' activists have successfully pushed for tougher stances from prosecutors—Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth Thompson said, the case was "indicative of my determination to be strong on folks who think they can just abuse any type of animal."
The [animal rights'] groups say they have captured law enforcement’s attention in part by emphasizing that animal cruelty can be a “red flag” for future crimes, particularly domestic violence. Prosecutions nationwide are becoming much more frequent, said Sherry Ramsey, the director of animal cruelty prosecutions for the Humane Society of the United States, “and a lot of it’s based on what we know now about the link between animal cruelty and human violence.”
Yet defense groups say animal abuse cases like Mr. Robinson’s should be handled individually, and are not necessarily predictive of worse behavior.
“We don’t punish individuals for alleged future misconduct they might at some point in the future engage, but have not,” Theodore Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in an email. “To do so would be to punish a person for a ‘crime’ that has not occurred and was not committed.”
Defense advocates also say more needs to be done if society wants to tamp down animal abuse.
Spencer A. Leeds, the lawyer for Mr. Oglesby, the man who set the cat on fire, said that the act was very disturbing. Still, he said, “the district attorney was very strong-minded about it, and what bothers me is that they have a strong prosecutorial bent toward it, yet on the other end they don’t have anything to treat or address the underlying causes as far as programs.”
Prosecutors say that Robinson was trying to impress his friends by kicking the cat, while Robinson says the cat had it coming by approaching him (Robinson had Chinese takeout near him at the time), "It rubbed against my leg. I was trying to shoo it away, but it didn’t go away. I figured if I kicked it, it would go away." From the Daily News:
“From what I see, the cat’s been adopted. It doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with the cat,” Robinson said.
He was asked if he’d like to say sorry to King and, as he mumbled an assent, his flabbergasted mother turned to the questioner.
“You want him to apologize to a cat?” she asked.
Yes, apologize to King:
Courtesy of the ASPCA
