ST. PETERS—A Missouri man has been charged with felony animal abuse after authorities say he killed and dismembered cats he found online.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says 20-year-old Kaine Louzader was charged Friday. Prosecutors say more charges are expected.
Louzader has been charged with two counts of animal abuse after he admitted to police that he was abusing the animals, according to Fox 2 Now.
Court documents say dead cats have been turning up on or near Louzader’s street outside St. Peters since January. Police contacted Louzader after someone reported seeing him dump a dead cat near his house.
St. Charles County police Sgt. Jeff Ochs says Louzader told police he would scour Craigslist ads for free cats, then would take them home and stomp or strangle them. Police say he dismembered some cats before dumping their remains.
Moreover, police said Louzader had cuts and scratches on him, which he initially said was caused by an elderly patient at the hospital he was working at. But after further questions, he told police the injuries were caused by cats that tried to escape him.
Louzader is being held on $50,000 bond and could not be reached Saturday for comment. No lawyer is listed for him in online court documents.
‘Mistreatment of Animals’
In a similar case, a Minnesota woman pleaded guilty to 13 counts of animal cruelty after more than 100 animals, including 64 dead cats, were discovered in her home.
Caycee Bregel, 25, pleaded guilty to one felony count of Mistreatment of Animals and twelve misdemeanor counts of Mistreatment of Animals relating to the death and care of a number of cats.
Bregel drew attention last year after authorities responded to reports that a pig was running loose in the area. When officers arrived they found the animals in her home in Farmington, Minnesota. She also ran the nonprofit “Minnesota Animal Rescue.”
Bregel was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, two years of probation, and 90 days of electronic home monitoring, according to Pioneer Press, and she was also ordered to undergo a psychological examination. In addition, Bregel cannot own, possess, or care for any animals.
In January this year, two Florida congressmen Democrat Ted Deutch and Republican Vern Buchanan introduced a bipartisan bill that would make animal cruelty a felony across the United States.
The bill named the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act will address “crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling or otherwise subjecting animals to serious bodily harm” according to a press release by the two Congressmen.
The torture of innocent animals is abhorrent and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Protecting animals from cruelty is a top priority for me and I look forward to working with Democratic @RepTedDeutch on this important issue. #Sayfie https://t.co/CLza5Wfu8t
— Rep. Vern Buchanan (@VernBuchanan) January 23, 2019
“For many Americans, animal welfare is an important policy issue, and the idea of animal abuse is abhorrent. By building on state and local laws, Congress should act to guarantee a level of protection for animals across the country by criminalizing these inhumane acts,” Congressman Deutch said in the release.
Currently, 50 states have laws that prevent cruelty against animals, however, if animals get tortured across state lines, there is little to protect them.
Epoch Times reporter Magaret Wollensak, Janita Kann contributed to this article.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
