Miami WTF
The Broward Sheriff’s Office took a woman into custody in connection to an animal cruelty investigation after a cat was set on fire at a Pompano Beach home.
Deputies and Pompano Beach Fire Rescue arrived at the home in the area of Northeast 33rd Street, Tuesday afternoon.
According to BSO, they received a call, just before 12:30 p.m., of someone who set a cat on fire while it was inside a raccoon trap that was in the home’s backyard.
Once at the scene, deputies located the cat and fire crews extinguished the fire.
The woman in custody has been identified, by BSO, as 79-year-old Elgathe Celestin. She is charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal.
A neighbor, speaking to 7News, said he saw and smelled smoke so he looked over the fence and saw the black cat that was being burned alive and moving around in a cage.
He said he was unsure of what he was seeing. At first, he thought it was a raccoon but then he noticed it was a cat.
“Smoke coming from my next door neighbors, so I kind of peeked over the hedges and I noticed smoke. I really didn’t see a flame but I saw smoke and I noticed a cage on top and a black cat kind of jumping around so I was in shock, called 911, and police and fireman showed up and handcuffed her,” said the man.
According to the neighbor, this is a neighborhood cat that he’s seen before and the whole ordeal was traumatizing to him.
The cat was then transported to the Hollywood Animal Hospital for treatment, which was unsuccessful, and it was euthanized.
