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Police say she poured boiling water on them, threw one against the side of her house and used a hammer and screwdriver as weapons.
By CARY DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000
DADE CITY -- A Dade City woman poured scalding water on six of her cats last week, killing the adult felines in what she described as a baptism ritual, police said.
Police said the 68-year-old woman also slung some of the cats against the side of her house on Third Street during the bizarre Thursday morning incident.
The woman told police that inner voices had encouraged her to baptize her cats, so she poured boiling water on them as they slept in their crates.
According to police reports, the woman said she was "cleansing her cats and baptizing them to get them ready for heaven."
Police did not arrest the woman. She was committed temporarily for psychiatric treatment under the state's Baker Act. The State Attorney's Office is reviewing the case to determine whether to file animal cruelty charges.
The St. Petersburg Times is withholding the woman's name because the newspaper typically does not identify people committed under the Baker Act.
Gertrude Keith said she watched in horror as her neighbor tortured the cats.
"She was pouring boiling water on them and I saw her slinging one of the cats against the side of her house," said Mrs. Keith, 79. "It really upset me."
Mrs. Keith called a neighbor, who reported the incident to police after finding a dead cat on the trunk of his car.
Police said their only explanation for the woman's behavior was that she had not taken the medication that normally controls her emotional and mental states.
The day before the cat killings, Mrs. Keith said, the woman was roaming the neighborhood, yelling incoherently and leaving empty casserole dishes in driveways.
Police said the woman also used a hammer and a screwdriver as weapons on several cats. Four cats were dead when police arrived, and two others were badly injured and had to be euthanized.
One cat escaped and returned unharmed to Mrs. Keith's house Friday. Mrs. Keith called the county's animal control unit, which took the cat away.
The cats were the woman's only pets and until Thursday she never had displayed any unusual behavior toward them, Mrs. Keith said.