Cuddly kitten, stoned & burned, dies in 'atrocious act of cruelty'

Even after a 6-week-old kitten was pelted with stones and set on fire in a Chester alley Saturday afternoon, it didn't lash out. The brown tabby greeted Dave Schlott, a Delaware County animal control officer, by climbing up his shirt and snuggling against his neck.

"It was cuddling, so I thought I'd name it Cuddles," Schlott said. "It was a really, really good-natured kitten."

Cuddles was being treated at Old Marple Veterinary Hospital, where he was initially expected to make a quick recovery.

But the kitten took a turn for the worse and died yesterday morning.

"Anytime you see an animal that was intentionally harmed, it's always a very upsetting situation," said Tabatha Gordon, assistant operations manager at the Delaware County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Gordon said that several people had called the SPCA over the weekend to ask about adopting Cuddles.

Chester police Capt. Joseph Massi said that 10 to 15 teenagers were huddled in a circle around the cat in an alley Saturday on West Fifth Street, but they scattered when a police car approached.

The cat sustained second- or third-degree burns on its right ear, in addition to burns on its back. The sickos likely used lighter fluid or some other accelerant, Schlott said.

"You know when you squeeze a can and a stream comes out? It looks like they went from the top of its forehead down the spinal column to its tail," he said. "And then they lit it."

Massi called it an "atrocious act of cruelty." Police have identified several persons of interest, but no arrests had been made as of yesterday afternoon.

Cuddles was the latest in a string of cruelty victims in the area. In July, a stray orange tabby was set ablaze in Darby and died of its injuries.

Last month, a cat was wrapped in duct tape in North Philadelphia after wandering into a 19-year-old's yard, according to the Pennsylvania SPCA. The cat, since named "Sticky," has been adopted.

The following week, a school bus driver was charged with misdemeanor animal-cruelty counts for tossing kittens out of a bus in Port Richmond.

Schlott said that it's unclear which injuries led to Cuddles' death, but speculated that he could have suffered internal injuries from the stones that were thrown at him.

"I don't know what makes people want to do that," he said. "If they do that to animals they're going to do that to a kid."