Florida man beheads pet cat with ax, puts its head on a spike to show his family 'what he was capable of'
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: A Florida youth beheaded his pet cat and put it's head on a spike in the garden to be used an ornament. Joshua Daniel Pena-Cedillo, 22, was arrested after his stepfather discovered the horrific crime scene of the severed head in the garden of his home in Clearwater on Thursday, April 23.
"Our officers charged Joshua Daniel Pena-Cedillo with animal cruelty after he killed his cat, cut off its head, and taped it to a stick in the back yard. The cat's name was Cinnamon," the Clearwater Police Department revealed.
Pena-Cedillo had allegedly told officers many different stories about how he killed Cinnamon who had been the family pet cat for the last five years. According to a spokesman for Clearwater Police Department said, "Pena-Cedillo told officers two versions of how the cat was killed – first he said he strangled it, then he said he put it in a plastic bag for 30 minutes until it died," reports The Sun.
"Then he told officers he used an ax to cut off the head, which he tried to impale on a stick. When that wouldn’t work, he resorted to taping it on the stick instead. He also cut the head off of a stuffed animal he had had as a child and put it on a stick next to the other stick," the spokesman revealed.
The authorities say that Pena-Cedillo likely killed the cat to show "someone living with him what he was capable of." He is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail with a bond of $5,000. He has been charged with felony animal cruelty.
It has also been reported that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has asked for the abuser to be handed to them for arrest and deportation should he be released, Breitbart reports.
Many social media users took to commenting on the case that was shared on Facebook by the Clearwater Police Department. One such user shared, "That is a horrific act, I see on the arrest he is being held for ICE and a quick search shows he was arrested 3 years ago in Ft Lauderdale for battery on an officer, EMT, and firefighter. Thank goodness his family turned him in before he harmed them or someone else."
Another added, "RIP to Cinnamon the cat and I hope the family can cope with this. Glad he is in custody and i hope he gets the help he needs. I feel so bad the family lost their beloved pet." A third user shared, "That is on so many levels of evil I can even imagine, Using this action to threaten his own family. Keep him locked up. He is danger to every living thing, including his own family."
We had previously reported that a Florida man brutally bludgeoned and stabbed his pet dog before baking it to death in hot oven earlier this month. Vicasso Lara, 24, reportedly killed the pet in his home on Lehigh Acres. Deputies from the Lee County Sheriff's Office were called to the scene where they came across several pools of blood outside of the house.
Bloodied footprints led them to the back entrance of the home on 11th Street SW. Concerned deputies then obtained a search warrant to get inside the property. Upon entering the home, the deputies found the body of a dog in the kitchen oven that had been turned to the highest setting. He was arrested on April 3 and charged with torture/inflict pain/serious physical injury/death upon an animal.