Police: Man poured boiling water on cat, hit it with broom

May 18, 2016 5:26 pm

By Alana Cerrone

acerrone@abc6.com

@Alana_Cerrone

A Providence man was arrested for brutally killing his family cat with a broom stick.

A police investigation led to some gruesome details about Hubert Desanges.

Police say he admitted to pouring boiling water on the family cat then hitting it with a broomstick when it went to hide behind the toilet.

He says he did it because he was mad at the cat for defecating in the house.

Desanges was arrested Wednesday morning after police got a complaint from the child’s school.

They say the child went to school and told them about what happened the day before.

Police showed up and found the cat, dead, with serious injuries.

Joe Warzycha from the Rhode Island Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who took the cat for x-rays and a necropsy, says, "The cat clearly had evidence of burn wounds, around the face, around the eyes, top of the head, indicating the cat had been burned or scalded in some way. Right now, we’re not sure if that was the actual cause of death."

They’ll know exactly how the cat died by Friday.

If convicted, Desanges could face up to 2 years in prison.

In January, a bill was introduced to the General Assembly that would place an additional penalty on anyone convicted of malicious injury to or killing of an animal in front of a child.

That bill was not passed.