They Found a Cat in a Parking Lot, Then Tortured It

A Texas man has received a three-year-plus prison sentence for kicking a cat, then permitting a video of that to be shared on social media. On Tuesday, a federal judge handed 30-year-old Donaldvan Williams 40 months behind bars on animal cruelty charges, after Williams pleaded guilty on animal crushing and aiding and abetting, per a Justice Department release.

• Definition: As laid out in federal criminal law, animal crushing entails conduct "in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury."

• The incident: According to court testimony, Williams and another man, Decorius Mire, came across a cat in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Beaumont, where Williams, after being egged on by Mire, "kicked the cat as if kicking a football field goal," sending the cat flying 15 to 20 feet, per the release. After the kick, the cat began foaming at the mouth and convulsing, per a statement of factual basis cited by NBC News.
• Further torture: Williams' indictment notes that another unidentified party then doused the cat in accelerant and set it ablaze, at which point the on-fire cat took off. It's not clear whether the cat survived.
• Recording: Mire's part was taking video with his cellphone, which he then shared on social media with Williams' knowledge. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act also bars recording incidents of animal cruelty. Mire also previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in July 2023.

(More animal cruelty stories.)