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Cat Knapped
Fri, Apr 15, 2005
ROCCO LaDUCA
Observer-Dispatch
DEERFIELD -- Oneida County sheriff's deputies have charged a Utica man with stealing a cat Tuesday afternoon from the Stevens-Swan Humane Society and causing its death.
Sebastian Dicesare, 22, was charged Thursday with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, deputies said, after being charged Wednesday with stealing the cat. Dicesare was arraigned Thursday on the cruelty charge and freed on bail, deputies said.
Deputies said Dicesare stole the cat from the humane society and took it to his home, where it was recovered by deputies. The calico cat named Stephanie died moments after deputies returned it to the humane society on Horatio Street, said Becky Warner, executive director of the humane society.
A pathologist at Cornell University performed an autopsy, according to sheriff's deputies, and determined the cat died as a result of multiple injuries, including contusions, hemorrhaging and trauma.
The man was in the center for a total of eight minutes, Warner said. A staff member accompanied him into the room where the animals are housed, but left him in the room for about two minutes, Warner said. That was just enough time for him to stuff the cat under his jacket, Warner said, citing video surveillance.
As he exited the humane society, Warner said a receptionist noticed something under his coat -- moments before another staff member said a cat was missing.
Several hours after staff provided sheriff's deputies with the suspect's license plate number, the man was located and the cat was returned, Warner said.
As people learned of Stephanie's death Thursday, humane society staff spent much of the day answering nearly 50 phone calls from people expressing their condolences and outrage at the cat's death, Warner said.
"People react passionately to any form of animal cruelty, especially when the animal is killed," Warner said. "I think the fact that a person willfully entered a humane society and stole the animal to do this is what really had people up in arms about it."
Some people are just sick. Why steal a cat and than get off by killing it??????????
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