Major cat abuse case--update

From the _Baltimore Sun_, Saturday, April 2, 2005:

In what is being called the first felony conviction for animal abuse in
Howard County, an Ellicott City man accused of sodomizing a cat was
found guilty Friday, April 1, in Howard District Court of mutilating and
inflicting cruelty upon an animal.

But Steven Richard Schatz, 38, was acquitted of committing a perverted
sexual practice with the cat--named Clyde, which was euthanized due to
its injuries--a pet that belonged to his then-girlfriend's daughter.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 26, when Schatz faces up to three years
in prison and a $5,000 fine for mutilating an animal, a felony. The
other charge carries a maximum 90-day sentence or a $1,000 fine.

"Clyde's death, as tragic as it was, will serve a purpose of telling the
public that animal abuse will not be tolerated in Howard County," said
Ann Selnick, president of Animal Advocates of Howard County. She said
this is the first felony conviction for animal abuse in Howard.

T. Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the county state's attorney's office,
said the office received about 500 faxes and e-mails--including from
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--from throughout the
country, advocating that the state prosecute Schatz to the fullest
extent of the law.

Schatz's lawyer, James Elliott, argued that the evidence "amounts to
speculation and conjecture." Schatz did not testify, but defense
witnesses--including his father and sister--said that they had never
known him to abuse animals.

Schatz...was arrested after his girlfriend, Danette Spence, became
suspicious when she came home in April of last year and found the cat
severely injured. Spatz was living at Spence's home at the time.

Spence took Clyde to a veterinarian, who observed that it had injuries
similar to those it would have suffered had it had been struck by a
car--severe hemorrhages in the eyes, a broken tooth, vomited blood and
inability to stand or walk, according to charging documents.

Spence became suspicious and placed a voice-activated digital recorder
in her daughter's room, where the cat slept.

About two weeks later, Spence retrieved the tape, which prosecutor Lisa
Vallario said contained about nine minutes of the cat being beaten and
tortured as well as comments from Schatz, a bartender at the Phoenix
Emporium in Ellicott City.

"You hear screeching from the cat...noises that I have never heard from
a cat before this case," Vallario said.

Spence again took the cat to a veterinarian, who found it had injuries
showing that it had been sodomized by an object, and it could have also
been sexually assaulted, according to charging documents.

Elliott had argued that the tape should not be admitted into evidence
because it violated state and federal wiretap laws.

District Judge Neil Edward Axel allowed the tape into evidence. Before
convicting Schatz, Axel said while the tape does have a "rhythmic
screeching by Clyde," it does not clearly indicate what was going on in
the room.