Yarmouth man held on bail after allegedly killing kitten

YARMOUTH, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A West Yarmouth man was arrested and charged with animal cruelty after a 6-month-old kitten died.

On Tuesday night at around 10:10 p.m., Yarmouth police responded to 38 Jerusha Lane where a disturbance had been reported. When officers arrived, they found people fighting "over a kitten that was seriously injured by a roommate."

Police say that 46-year-old Randall Newell Jr., who lived at the home, was "drunken," and allege that he killed the 6-month-old kitten named Simba. He has been charged with one count of animal cruelty related to killing, maiming or poisoning an animal.

Simba's owner Pamela MacKenney said, "He just kept saying he didn't do nothing, he didn't know, he didn't do nothing and he did, he killed him he punched him, he broke his whole face. It didn't even look like my little Simba."

She went on to say, "It was awful. I don't know how anyone could do that to a little animal."

Officer Nick Giammarco said, "What I saw was a cat with blood filled eyes, blood filled ears, still."

According to the police department, officers have been dispatched to the home on Jerusha Lane approximately 100 times in the past year, for disturbances, noise complaints, drug offenses, reports of intoxicated people, assaults and other incidents.

The home's owner and several tenants "are the subject of numerous past and ongoing criminal and civil investigations with cases pending in court," according to a statement from the police department.

Newell is being held on $5,000 bail.

Cox Media Group