The viral video posted to Facebook shows a man dumping a pot of boiling water on a cat sitting on a windowsill. The cat then screams in pain, bolting from the porch. The post has since been deleted.
As the post continued to garner views on the social media site, the Greenville Police Department received an increasing amount of phone calls reporting the despicable video. According to police, investigators have identified the origin of the video and the Facebook user who posted it. They are now working to verify the video and find the cat.
If verified, the video may support felony animal cruelty charges. Article 47 of the relevant North Carolina animal cruelty statutes provides,
(a) If any person shall intentionally overdrive, overload, wound, injure, torment, kill, or deprive of necessary sustenance, or cause or procure to be overdriven, overloaded, wounded, injured, tormented, killed, or deprived of necessary sustenance, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.(b) If any person shall maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill, or cause or procure to be tortured, mutilated, maimed, cruelly beaten, disfigured, poisoned, or killed, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class H felony.
The incarceration penalty for a Class H felony in North Carolina is 4 to 25 months, ignoring prior criminal records.
When it comes to harming innocent animals, the Internet doesn’t sleep, and likely won’t until the man in the video is brought to justice.
Warning: This video is disturbing and may contain content that is not suitable for all ages.
[h/t WNCN]