A Mount Pleasant, South Carolina man has been charged with one count of ill-treatment to animals for abusing his girlfriend’s cat. According to a police report, the abuse began in January.
According to an incident report, the girlfriend didn’t put things together until the last few days that Joseph Clark, 24, was abusing her cat. It first began in late January when the cat had to be taken to the vet with a prolapsed rectum.
Other injuries included a busted lip, leg injuries and a hemorrhage to the eye.
The cat was taken to the vet on May 13 for another busted lip. It was at this time the vet discovered a broken jaw, three broken teeth, and another eye hemorrhage.
During a vet visit on May 16, the woman found that a tube had been taken out of the cat’s lip which would have been impossible for the cat to have removed on its own because it had been stitched in place.
The girlfriend told police the cat would hiss at the boyfriend but not at her. In one incident the cat was missing for seven hours or more. She had checked all over the house, including in the dryer.
When Clark arrived home from work, he allegedly found the cat in the dryer. The dryer had been checked twice, leaving the girlfriend to believe he’d taken the cat with him that day.
Clark was always the one to point out the injuries to the cat. Blood was found on her dryer as well as the top of the bedroom door, in the bathroom and in the living room.
The girlfriend also reported Clark had set fires in the Francis Marion Forest to “calm down,” and admitted he walked away from one fire that got out of his control.
A former roommate of Clark told police she believes he abused her dog. She heard the dog yelping one day and found Clark putting her dog in a choke hold and pulling the dog’s hair out.
Clark is back on the streets tonight after being released from the Charleston County Detention Center on a $3,000 bond.
The veterinarian has confirmed the cat was treated on several occasions for the injuries listed above. Let’s hope the girlfriend and her cat have the good sense to leave this abuser before someone ends up dead.
Photo credit: Joseph Clark, Charleston County Detention Center.
