Norman – the seven pound, declawed tabby cat who was killed by Joseph Petchka
A mistrial was declared in late September for Joseph Petcka, former minor league baseball player and small-time actor for brutally attacking and killing Norman, his former girlfriend’s cat. Although Petcka is free, he is not cleared. There will be another hearing any day on the charge. If convicted, he could spend two years in jail.
I have known of this story but was busy covering the puppymill legislation. I want to thank Deb Hauptman of One by One Cat Rescue for emailing me to remind me of this heinous act of animal cruelty.
Joe and his former girlfriend, Lisa Altobelli (a Sports Illustrated reporter) began a relationship in 2007 and after six or eight weeks, Lisa told him the relationship was over. Allegedly, Petcka was not happy with her decision. On the night in question of the killing, the two of them had been drinking when they argued.
In court it was established that Norman had never liked Petcka. According to Petcka’s testimony, he said Norman lunged at him and bit him. He said he lost his balance and fell by a coffee table. When the cat bit him again, he said he leaned backward and kicked out reflexively.
According to the former girlfriend, she said Petcka came into her bedroom screaming that the cat bit him. She left the apartment and returned the next day to find Norman’s body under a table. Petcka said he left the apartment that night and didn’t know the cat was dead until he was arrested several weeks later.
Here were Norman’s injuries according to the veterinarian who testified:
broken ribs, a ripped lung and liver, chipped teeth and torn tongue
Petcka admitted to the attack on the cat but he is no longer saying it was self-defense as was once reported. According to his lawyer,Charles Hochbaum, his client had a bad reaction to a bad situation. Petcka had been charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony.
Many people are outraged over this story including me. There was a hung jury of 11-1. Everyone but one man on the jury didn’t believe Petcka’s story. I wonder what this person saw that no one else did.
Joe Petcka as seen on the Today Show
Click this link to view his interview with Matt Lauer http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/26940821#26940821.
What can I say? If you watch the interview, I don’t feel remorse on his end. I think he’s sorry because of all the negative publicity it has brought him but I just don’t feel he’s sorry for the death of his former girlfriend’s cat.
One other important fact that the judge didn’t allow the jury to hear: Petcka had apparently flown into a “blind rage” and sliced off another ex-girlfriend’s fingertip by slamming a door on it in 2002. He was arrested and charged with 2 counts of assault and 1 count of harrassment. He pled guilty to harassment and ordered to take anger management classes. Why wouldn’t the judge allow this important piece of information be introduced into this trial?
All 12 jurors in this case agreed that Petcka was not guilty of harassing Lisa Altobelli but said they would have considered the old charge if they had known about his other arrest.
This was a heinous and deplorable act of animal cruelty – no doubts about it. I’ve tried to put myself in his position. I never heard of a doctor’s report on Petcka’s injuries. He never mentioned it in the interview with Matt Lauer. Cat bites can be very severe. I know from firsthand knowledge.
My husband and I had just brought my dad home from the hospital in 2007. My niece was living there with her two cats. The one cat, Rosco, picked fights with the other cat, Teddy. So we separated them. We kept Rosco upstairs. I wanted to spend some time with Rosco so I carried him downstairs to the first floor and held him in my arms the entire time. Teddy sat on the floor in front of us. Teddy liked seeing Rosco. Unfortunately the feeling was mutual. I could feel Rosco getting upset. I knew it was time to take him upstairs.
Before I was able to do that, Rosco bit into my left arm, through a sweater coat and another sweater. Let me tell you, I screamed my head off with my dad who was sitting directly across from me and not being able to help me and with my husband in another area of the house not knowing what was going on. I have been bitten my own dog when I was a little girl. Prince bit very close to my eye. I am extremely fortuante that I didn’t lose my eye. I can’t deny that didn’t hurt but this pain was far worse.
The excruciating pain was unrelenting because I couldn’t loosen Rosco’s grip with his teeth. I tried and tried to pull him off my arm. But he refused to let go. His teeth sunk into my arm as far as they could go and that was quite deep. I pulled and pulled. While I was doing that he had his back claws out and dug them into my leg ripping my pants and scratching my leg.
I finally was able to literally rip him off my arm. My husband finally heard me and came running. I was still screaming! I gently took off my coat and saw how ripped apart my forearm was along with puncture wounds. My hand began to swell immediately. We knew I had to go to the hospital. But we also knew we had to get Rosco and put him upstairs since we didn’t want another incident with my dad home alone at the time.
Was I mad at Rosco- you betcha!! Was I pain – horrific pain! But I had to help to get Rosco upstairs and I did.
All of the staff at the hospital who saw my arm acknowledged how bad it was. Why am I telling you this story? I’m trying to put myself in Petcka’s shoes. Here I was seriously attacked and this was severe. Petcka claims what he did was a reflex action to the cat biting him. My knee-jerk reaction was to get the cat off of me and away from me as fast as I could. It never entered my mind to hurt him. I wanted to take care of my injuries. The same case holds true when my dog bit me. I ran away from my dog to get help because I knew the bite was serious.
Petcka had gone into his ex-girlfriend’s bedroom and yelled that Norman bit him. He never said he needed medical attention. He was mad that her cat bit him. If the bites were as bad as he claimed why didn’t he leave and get medical attention. Instead you kick the cat to death. Why didn’t he tell his ex-girlfriend that he was hurt? Why were no medical reports given in this trial?
What the cat endured was obviously far worse than what Norman inflicted on him. It was stated that Norman didn’t care for Petcka – perhaps we know why.
We should find out any day if another trial will happen and I hope it does. I also hope the fact that he sliced off another ex-girlfriend’s fingertip will be allowed. There needs to be accountability and consequences for animal cruelty. What he did was so despicable and reprehensible.
Many New-Yorkers which is where this incident took place are very angry towards Petcka but he said this incident hasn’t changed his opinion of the city. “I love New York,” and he said “I’ve always been a big fan of it. This is one incident that happened that I can’t take back and I feel extremely sorry that this happened. It was not a fun situation.”
Not a fun situation- I can feel the remorse- can’t you?