A 21-year-old Texas man, Krystopher Nathan Torres, was found guilty of brutally devouring and eating a cat in the parking lot behind a restaurant called The Junction Brunch House, back in July 2024. Now, the case has been garnering massive outrage after a judge declared that the accused will not be serving any jail time.
The man had publicly eaten the cat and its intestines in the parking lot. For the unfamiliar, U.S. President Donald Trump faced extreme backlash during his presidential campaign when he said that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating cats and dogs that belonged to the local residents.
Back then, the Biden White House had criticized the statement and called it “dangerous information.” Talking about the case, Krystopher was sentenced on Monday, November 17, but his punishment was what took the animal activists by shock.
Ruling out any jail time, Torres was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, five years of probation, and $300 in court expenses. A concerned statement came from the Defense of Animals Senior Campaigner, Doll Stanley. It said, “It’s disappointing that the disturbing nature of this case has not been taken seriously by the court.”
Stanley further criticized how the 21-year-old’s punishment also does not include proper mental health counseling for the disturbing crime that he had committed. It further stated, “The abuser in this case isn’t going to serve time or be mandated to obviously needed mental health counseling.”
Talking about the incident, the customers who witnessed Krystopher Nathan Torres’ heinous act informed the manager of The Junction Brunch House in El Paso that a “man was stabbing and eating a cat in the parking lot.” Soon after this, the authorities were dispatched to investigate the same on July 17, 2024, according to Daily Mail.
View this post on Instagram
The accused had already fled from the parking lot after committing the act. As a result, the employees of The Junction Brunch House had to collect the cat’s remains in a plastic bag and discard them in a dumpster.
The authorities were shocked to see the mutilated cat’s intestines being scattered all over the parking lot. Upon finding the cat’s body, its head was found to be crushed, with its body ruthlessly ripped open. Krystopher was caught after he was involved in a car accident the next day.
The 21-year-old was arrested and taken to the El Paso County Detention Facility, where a bond was set at $100,000. Activist group, In Defense Of Animals, sent out a letter garnering 14,765 signatures, which called for harsh penalties for the accused.
View this post on Instagram
They also demanded that Torres receive a “mandated psychiatric counseling and a lifetime ban from being around animals.” Stanley further said in his statement, “Those who can harm animals so maliciously must be held accountable, and vulnerable community members must be protected from further harm they may cause.”
However, the current punishment meted out to Torres goes starkly against what the activist group has been demanding. For the unknown, the ghastly act happened around 1,600 miles away from the US President Donald Trump had claimed that the immigrants were eating cats and dogs of the local residents.
