Four Chandler boys are in juvenile jail this morning, accused of torturing and killing a kitten.
The boys, ages 8 to 12, were caught by their trailer park's surveillance video kicking the two-month-old kitten repeatedly before tossing its "limp and lifeless" body into a pool, Chandler police say.
A fifth boy, 7, who participated in the act "is too young to face charges," and a six observed what was going on but didn't take part in it, says Chandler Sergeant Joe Favazzo.
We didn't see the video and didn't request it, though it's available at Chandler PD headquarters on CD. Don't worry, it'll probably turn up soon on some perverted animal-snuffing website, in case your life just won't be complete without seeing it.
On October 14, Favazzo says, the surveillance camera at the Sunshine Valley mobile home park, 1650 South Arizona Avenue, caught the group of boys playing with a small dog and a kitten at park's small playground. Cops learned later that one of the boys had found the kitten under his trailer and sold it to another boy for $3. The boys learned that it was a female -- cops believe it was about two months old.
The playing went along innocently enough until the boys get the idea to push the dog on the slide into the kitten, Favazzo says the video shows. This sparks the idea to push a soccer ball into the kitten, then slide down themselves into the kitten, kicking it and watching it fly off the end. The kitten tries to escape several times, but can't. Finally, it's thrown onto the ground by a boy. The group checks out the body, and one of the boys throws it over a fence and into the pool.
After a two-week investigation, police arrested the four older boys on Sunday morning. They were booked into a Mesa juvenile lockup but likely were released to their parents the next day, Favazzo says.
