Pennsylvania man, 27, who fished for cats with baited hooks pleads guilty to animal cruelty

If you follow cat news you may remember this man whose name is Kenny Rowles. I wrote about him a while ago. If you want some detail on the story as it unfolded please click on this link.

He pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges last Monday. He was arrested in May after rescuers found a stray cat with a fishhook in his mouth. Two more cats were found with fishing lines hanging from their mouths. Rowles admitted putting meat on a fishing line and dangling it from his back porch at an abandoned property near his home in Plymouth. He’ll be sentenced on December 2 at Luzerne County courthouse.

Kenny Rowles and fish hook
Kenny Rowles and fish hook. Pictures: Facebook.

There was talk at the time as to whether he was mentally ill but the report in the Daily Mail online website does not refer to that. He was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals involving torture and serious bodily injury. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on April 8, reported finding a stray cat in a vacant property in Plymouth with a fishhook in his mouth. It is a quite an horrific photograph which I will not show here.

The cat was treated and has survived but has visible scarring around his mouth. We are told that Rowles was bragging about his activities to neighbours. When interviewed by the police and animal welfare officers on April 9, he claimed that he had used baited triple fishing hooks and string to feed the cats.

Rowles cried in front of welfare officers when he was told there was a cat with a fishhook in his mouth. This reaction may be one of several which indicated that he may have mental health issues. One of the cats, Tollie, underwent surgery to remove the triple pronged fish hook from his mouth at Wilkes-Barre Animal Hospital.

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