COLUMBUS, Ohio – The state Supreme Court reinstated an animal cruelty conviction Wednesday of a man found guilty of pouring bleach down his apartment stairs, soaking an apparently stray kitten.
In a unanimous opinion, the court ruled that Ohio’s enhanced animal cruelty law for “companion animals” applies to all cats and dogs, even those not under domain of any owner.
In October 2021, Cleveland police responded to a call at an apartment complex. They found an eight-month-old kitten wearing no collar meowing loudly and soaked in liquid bleach. Its paws were red and swollen, later diagnosed as likely bleach-induced ulceration. A veterinarian determined the animal was stressed but not in pain. The bleach exposure left it at risk of illness or death.
Alonzo Kyles, 37, told officers he feared the cat and couldn’t get it to leave the building. So he poured bleach – a toxic substance for pets – out of his door, down some steps, and into the basement hallway to scare it off.
He was charged and convicted of animal cruelty of a companion animal, a fifth-degree felony, as opposed to a more generalized (non-companion) animal cruelty misdemeanor offense. He was sentenced to nine months in jail. However, the Eighth District Court of Appeals reversed the conviction.
Ohio law defines a companion animal as an animal “that is kept inside a residential dwelling and any dog or cat regardless of where it is kept, including a pet store.” The law is, as the justices put it, “no model of clarity.”
Kyles argued that the cat was not a companion animal because it had no owner to “keep” it. Prosecutors argued for a broader reading that “any dog or cat” is a companion animal. The court sided with prosecutors and referred the case back to lower courts.
Stephen Hardwick, an attorney for Kyles, emphasized in a previous statement Kyles didn’t pour bleach on the cat. Rather, he poured a diluted bleach mixture down the stairs to get it to leave because he was “afraid about the spread of COVID and cats.” He declined comment on the court’s ruling.
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
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