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Activists: Penalize cat abuse
Published in the Home News Tribune 2/18/04
By
RAVEN HILL
STAFF WRITER
FRANKLIN: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to township prosecutor
Steven D. Rothblatt yesterday urging him to vigorously prosecute two men charged with trying to drown a feral cat in a bucket
of kerosene, hitting it with a fire extinguisher -- and when it refused to die -- burying it in the snow.
The two men,
Jason J. Mate, 31, of North Brunswick and Janos Kovas, 47, of the Somerset section of Franklin, are due to appear in Municipal
Court today to face charges in the Feb. 4 incident.
Franklin police turned the case over to the New Jersey Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The SPCA filed civil charges along with disorderly persons summonses, said SPCA
agent Murray Rothblatt.
Steven Rothblatt said the two men face up to six months in jail, 30 days of community service
and fines if found guilty.
Mate and Kovas work as maintenance workers at the Franklin-Hamilton Gardens on Hawthorne
Drive, where the alleged attack occurred.
An anonymous caller tipped Franklin animal-control officers to the attack
on the animal. When police arrived, they saw the men trying to bury the cat while it was in a Havahart trap, said Katie Nordhaus,
animal-control officer for Franklin.
PETA requested jail time, psychological evaluations, mandatory counseling and
anger-management classes at Mate and Kovas' expense if they are convicted.
"Animal abusers are cowards," said PETA
cruelty caseworker Daniel Paden. "They take their issues out on the most defenseless beings available to them. . . . According
to leading mental health professionals and law-enforcement agencies, perpetrators of violent attacks against animals are often
repeat offenders who pose a serious threat not only to other animals but to the community as a whole."
PETA is also
sending an anti-violence public service announcement hosted by actor Dennis Franz to television stations serving the Somerset
County area.
Raven Hill: (732) 565-7321; rhill@thnt.com
Copyright 2004 Home News Tribune.
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