Tiger Lily was only eight weeks old when she was shut in an oven and left to burn to death
A 17-year-old girl who shut a kitten in a 500 degree oven and left it to die has reached a plea bargain that will see her doing only two years of jail time for this heinous crime. Tiger Lily, an eight week old white and brown tabby, literally roasted to death as the butt of a cruel “practical joke” that Cherry and a 14-year-old companion played on a Cherry’s former roommate. Well, I’ll tell you, there’s nothing funnier than committing extreme acts of animal cruelty to get even.
On May 6, 2009 Cherry and a 14-year-old friend broke into Cherry’s former roommate, Valerie Hernandez’s apartment allegedly with the intention of playing a practical joke. According to reports, it was the younger girl who put tiny Tiger Lily into the oven and shut the door, but Cherry “didn’t let it out,” and the pair fled the apartment, not wanting to hear the poor kitten’s desperate mewls for help, and her scratching at the oven door. When firefighters entered the apartment hours later, they found nothing but a smoldering carcass. Tiger Lily was so badly burned, vets had to perform a necropsy to determine the sex. Cherry’s response? “I hate cats,” and “it was a practical joke.”
Amazingly, upon her arrest for the crime back in May, Cherry was released without bail despite having previous animal kidnapping charges against her, from a 2008 incident where she and her boyfriend kidnapped and held for random a teacup Yorkie (at whose head they aimed a BB gun in order to intimidate the owner into handing it over). It wasn’t until the ASPCA arrested her on animal cruelty charges and released the story to the media that she was held and charged for this heinous crime. Clearly, the NYPD don’t take animal cruelty seriously, a real shame considering acts such as this are often the precursor of psychotic and/or anti-social conditions.
And clearly, someone on the judicial side thinks that two years in prison and a three year moratorium on pet ownership is enough punishment for the unabashed kitty killer. Cherry was reported in the media as laughing at protesters, shrugging off her crime (see: above comment on hating cats, practical jokes) and generally showing no remorse. Two years is hardly sufficient, and given how readily one can get an animal from Craigslist, the short-term ban on having a pet will hardly matter. Apparently Cherry has a dog that she “loves very much,” according to her brother. Cats? Not so much.
It almost goes without saying: this is disgusting. Reading accounts of this crime, even thinking about that poor kitten’s suffering, turns my stomach. Who could do such a thing? And who thinks that such a paltry sentence is sufficient?
Let’s not just focus on Cherry, though. Her teen accomplice, who is apparently also the mother of a 4-month-old (so was she pregnant when this happened? Jeeze), has admitted that she is the one who set the oven to 500 degrees and put the kitten inside. Because of her age, she has been sentenced to a mere 18 months in a juvenile detention facility. Sorry, but if you are old enough to have a BABY and premeditate to put a kitten in a 500 degree oven, you can face criminal charges. So as upsetting as it is to see Cherry get off with just two years and some pet owning probation, it’s almost worse to see the teen who actually put Tiger Lily in the oven looking at no worse than juvie, and a record that will likely be wiped when she turns 18. Fourteen is old enough to know better. No excuses.
This is why I’m involved in animal activism. Acts such as this are disgusting, and while I realize there are limitations to punishment, for such a heinous crime, this outcome is sadly lacking. I wish there were more justice for poor little Tiger Lily.
