PETA wants jail time for Miami teen accused of burning caged cat, feeding it to dogs

A prominent national animal-rights group wants jail time for the South Miami-Dade teen accused of torching a caged cat, then feeding the mortally wounded animal to his dogs.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Thursday called for the sentence as a Miami-Dade judge moved up a court date for Roberto Hernandez, who is charged with felony animal cruelty.

Hernandez, 19, will now face the judge on Friday. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Nushin Sayfie is considering whether to sentence Hernandez to jail time for the killing of the animal, which his lawyers insist was a raccoon, not a cat.

PETA urged incarceration for Hernandez via an email sent Thursday to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. The email was sent one day after the Miami Herald detailed the brutal killing in a case that had gone unpublicized since Hernandez was arrested in 2017.

“The link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence is undeniable, and the safety of the community is better secured by vigorous prosecution of these cases,” Kristin Rickman, a manager with PETA’s Cruelty Investigations Department, wrote to the state attorney.

Rickman also asked that Hernandez be prohibited from “owning and contact with animals,” which is often part of a sentence for people convicted of animal abuse.

Prosecutors say Hernandez, then 17, put a cat in a small cage, doused it with some sort of flammable liquid, then flicked matches on it until the animal burst into flames. Surveillance video shows the animal writhing in pain, until it collapsed. He then fed the animal to his dogs, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

Hernandez “leisurely grabs a drink and watches the defenseless caged animal burn alive,” Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Nicole Garcia wrote in a motion filed last week.

A tenant who lived on the Hernandez family’s rural property witnessed the killing in July 2016 and reported the case to Miami-Dade Police.

Defense lawyers say Hernandez actually trapped a rabid raccoon that had been attacking domesticated animals in South Miami-Dade. Prosecutors say it doesn’t matter — the suffering of a raccoon still qualifies as animal cruelty under Florida law.

Hernandez’s defense team has said he may plead guilty without a plea deal from the state.

Prosecutors want him sentenced to at least 364 days in jail, plus five years of probation. Defense lawyers, citing his troubled childhood and his being forced to drop out of high school to help on his family’s farm, want probation and court-ordered therapy.

Hernandez had no criminal history and did not understand the consequences of his actions, his lawyers said in a document sent to the court.

“Roberto is a young man on the precipice of adult life, who has never been arrested and has shown himself to be a loving child, a responsible caretaker and law-abiding citizen, ” Miami-Dade Assistant Public Defender Kevin Cobb wrote.

Judge Sayfie had originally scheduled the hearing for March 14. Although the online docket does not show the new date, a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman confirmed Hernandez’s case was moved to Friday.

This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 5:43 PM.