ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A man lifted a stray cat by its tail and flung the animal across an apartment complex parking lot then later posted video of the act of animal cruelty to Snapchat, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said they began investigating on Dec. 16 when they received an email containing a Snapchat video that showed a man grabbing a black cat by its tail and throwing it above his head across the length of several parking spaces. The video showed the cat flipping in the air with its legs stretched out but it did not show the cat landing, records show.
The video showed that it originated from a Snapchat account that belonged to the suspect, 19-year-old Kelvin Colon, according to the report.
Deputies said they went to Colon’s address and it was the same apartment complex featured in the video. They searched for the small black cat seen in the video but couldn’t find it.
The school resource officer at Edgewater High School met with deputies and said Colon, a student at the school, was the person in the video, records show. The school resource officer had already confronted Colon about the video and he seemed apologetic, according to authorities.
Deputies said they met with Colon at the school and he said he knew it was wrong to throw the stray cat and he noted that he didn’t believe the cat was injured in any way. He said the video was recorded in September but was only recently posted to social media, records show.
The Sheriff’s Office said Colon wrote a statement apologizing for upsetting people by posting the video but he didn’t express remorse for hurting the cat.
“The video clearly shows Mr. Colon’s actions were deliberate and shocking. There is no reasonable explanation for his actions other than the torment of the animal and any reasonable person would conclude that his actions are likely to cause harm to the animal,” a deputy wrote in the arrest warrant.
A search was conducted through Orange County Animal Services and there were no reports of injured or dead cats in the area in the past few months. It’s unknown if the cat was injured since it couldn’t be located.
Colon was arrested Tuesday on a charge of felony cruelty to animals.