WHAT A HEEL!: Owner Who Never Took Sick Cat To The Vet Charged With Animal Cruelty
Three months after Martin Walsh took his ailing 15-year-old cat to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to be euthanized in January 2007, he was charged with animal cruelty for not seeking medical treatment for the pet, which was dehydrated, emaciated, had a polyp in its nasal passage that impeded breathing, and had a "swollen and bleeding" right-front paw for roughly a year that was the result of an untreated tumor, reports New York Law Journal. Criminal Court Judge ShawnDya L. Simpson denied Walsh’s bid to have the charges dropped, ruling that the allegations against him were within the scope of §350 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, which defines “torture” and “cruelty” as “every act, omission, or neglect, that causes or permits an animal to suffer unjustifiable physical pain or death.” The judge noted that Walsh could have turned the cat over to the ASPCA if he was unable to afford its medical care. Walsh could get as much as a year in jail on the Class A misdemeanor.
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