Father jailed after daughter says he killed her kittens as punishment

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) – A Florida man has been charged with animal cruelty after he allegedly killed two kittens and injured another.

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Police said 48-year-old David Charette Jr. allegedly committed the crimes in front of his teenage daughter as a form of punishment.

Body camera video shows deputies detaining Charette outside his Pine Manor home.

Before he was placed in handcuffs, Charette told deputies he had done nothing wrong.

“The cat is in perfectly healthy condition. I have to give the cat a bath because it soils itself in the cage,” Charette could be heard saying on the police video.

Detectives said a 14-year-old girl inside the home told a very different story.

“A daughter says that when she acts up or when she’s in trouble, her father kills her kittens. This is sickening to me,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.

The 14-year-old called 911 Wednesday after watching her father hold a 2-month-old kitten named Luna under running water.

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The teen told deputies Charette also hit the kitten with a nail polish bottle and put it into a clothes dryer Saturday.

Luna survived and is recovering.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s horrible. It’s sad,” one neighbor said.

Marceno said this wasn’t the first time.

“Two of the kittens that he killed were buried in the back,” Marceno described.

Marceno said one cat died in June after being hit repeatedly and left on a bleach-soaked rag while another kitten was found dead in November after suffering burns from a blow dryer.

Detectives said family members never reported the abuse because they feared retaliation.

Three adult cats were taken from the home for evaluation.

Charette is now in jail, charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

“Killed in front of the child, it’s horrible. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking and it just makes me very upset,” the neighbor added.

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