NEW JERSEY – A 19-year-old woman has been accused of violently throwing a cat outside from a three-story New Jersey apartment has been charged with animal cruelty, officials stated.
The criminal charge comes right after Tikeemah J. Lassiter of Clinton was captured flinging the cat on video while visiting her relatives on South Orange Ave. in Newark, N.J. Thursday, Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose explained to NJ.com.
Tikeemah Lassiter, 19, has been charged with animal cruelty. (NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY)
The cat did survive, but in the video, it looked clearly shaken trying to recover as people in the background were laughing uncontrollably.
“Really, it’s dead?” a woman off-camera stated while laughing.
A concerned neighbor called 911 to report the viral video showing the violent act. Shortly after the call, police arrested and charged Lassiter on Saturday.
Lassiter is not the owner of the cat, officials say, and the motive behind the crime remains unclear.
The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals eventually took custody of the cat and a veterinarian is now scheduled to examine the feline before feline is placed in a permanent home.
Back in 2014, the infamous Brooklyn cat kicker, Andre Robinson, 22, admitted to senselessly kicking a cat and was involved in several legal battles over the matter.
That incident spurred animal activists across the entire city to raise debate about animal’s rights and the law.
In Ohio, a then 18-year-old man faced misdemeanor charges after he confessed to kicking a cat down the sidewalk of a university.
