Man Kills Girlfriend's Mother's Pet Cat, Dumps Body In Dumpster

A Rhode Island man was charged with animal cruelty Friday for killing his girlfriend’s mother's pet cat and blaming it on a toddler.

Police responded to the woman's home Sept. 24 after receiving a report from her mother stating that the feline was found dead in a dumpster. The unidentified woman told the responding officers that she returned home from work an hour ago but did not find the feline. While searching, she found the cat dead inside a trash bag in a dumpster.

She said the feline was alone with 27-year-old Matthew J. Johnson when she left for work earlier that day. When she contacted him after returning home to know if he had seen the cat, Johnson said he had last seen the feline before taking out the trash. The woman said she suspected the man as he had previously admitted to kicking and injuring one of her cats. It was not known if the girlfriend too stayed in the home with her mother.

Following investigation, police obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on Friday and took him into custody. During interrogation, the accused said a one-year-old child injured the feline.

He was charged with two counts of malicious injury to or killing of animals and his bail was set at $2,500. The motive behind the killing was not known.

In a similar incident in January, a Louisiana man was sentenced to three years in prison for killing his girlfriend's cat and throwing the feline into a bayou. The court heard that 30-year-old Cody Toups grabbed the animal from his girlfriend's home and threw it into Bayou Lafourche. When the girlfriend's father attempted to pull the feline out of the bayou, he fatally struck the cat with a machete. He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated cruelty to animals.