Clearwater Police have charged a 22-year-old man with felony animal cruelty related to an incident with the family’s cat.
Police responded to a residence in the 1200 block of Sedeeva Circle N.on the morning of Thursday, April 23, 2020.
Joshua Daniel Pena-Cedillo’s stepfather said he found the cat’s severed head on a stick in the back yard.
Pena-Cedillo told officers two versions of how the cat had died – that he had strangled it or that he had placed it alive in a plastic bag and suffocated it.
After that, he said he cut off the cat’s head with an ax and then tried to impale it on a stick. When that effort failed, he taped the cat’s head to a stick.
He also cut off the head of a stuffed animal he had had for years and taped it on to another stick. He said he did these actions so he could show what he was capable of to someone he was living with.
The suspect was booked in to the Pinellas County Jail.