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A Florida father was arrested this week for allegedly killing the family’s kittens in front of his teenage daughter as a form of punishment, authorities said.
Bodycam video released by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies responding to a home in Pine Manor after receiving a report that a man was attempting to drown and strike a two-month-old kitten named Luna.
David Charette Jr., 48, was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty after authorities accused him of killing two kittens and injuring a third.
Witnesses told deputies that Charette allegedly abused and killed the family’s kittens in front of his teenage daughter as a form of punishment when she “acted up.”
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Charette defended his treatment of Luna while speaking with deputies in the body camera video.
“The cat is in perfectly healthy condition,” Charette told deputies. “I have to give the cat a bath because it soils itself in the cage.”
“It’s covered in crap and I have to give it a bath, and it cries, and she doesn’t like that,” he added.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the allegations involving Charette’s daughter made the case particularly disturbing.
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“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.
Investigators said they later learned Charette had allegedly killed two other kittens over the previous year.
In June, Charette allegedly smothered a one-month-old kitten with a bleach-soaked rag, according to the sheriff’s office.
In a separate incident, investigators said Charette allegedly killed a three-month-old kitten with a blow-dryer.
Authorities said both kittens had been buried in the backyard, but investigators recovered only one during a search of the property.
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Luna was taken to a local animal hospital for treatment and is recovering, according to the sheriff’s office.