Florida man arrested after allegedly killing kittens as punishment, sheriff says

David Charette Jr., 48, was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty after deputies in Lee County, Florida, said he killed two kittens and injured a third as a form of punishment in front of his teenage daughter, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Body-camera video released by the sheriff’s office shows deputies responding to a home in the Pine Manor area after a report that a man was attempting to drown and strike a 2-month-old kitten named Luna, the sheriff’s office said.

In the video, Charette defended his treatment of Luna, saying, “The cat is in perfectly healthy condition,” and that he had to bathe the animal because it soiled itself, the sheriff’s office said. “It’s covered in crap and I have to give it a bath, and it cries, and she doesn’t like that,” he told deputies, according to the body-camera footage released by the sheriff’s office.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno called the allegations involving the daughter particularly disturbing. “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, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators said they learned Charette allegedly killed two other kittens over the previous year. In June, he allegedly smothered a 1-month-old kitten with a bleach-soaked rag, and in a separate incident he allegedly killed a 3-month-old kitten with a blow dryer, investigators said. Authorities said both kittens had been buried in the backyard; investigators recovered one during a search. Luna was taken to a local animal hospital and is recovering, the sheriff’s office said.

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