Cat killer sought macabre jobs, hearing told

by Philip Lee-Shanok-- Sun Media, April 3, 2002

TORONTO -- A man who planned, orchestrated and videotaped the torture and disembowelment of a live cat has an escalating fascination with death and dismemberment, court heard.

The sentencing hearing for Jesse Champlain Power, 22, and Anthony Ryan Wennekers, 24, who have pleaded guilty to mischief and cruelty to animals, was told yesterday that Power was the brains behind the grotesque act of cruelty.

"Power was the organizer and orchestrator and the others follow his directions to cause the animal pain and agony," said Crown prosecutor Robin Flumerfelt in his final submissions.

Power, Wennekers and a third man, who's still at large, appear in a 17-minute video hacking and stabbing a tabby cat with knives and dental tools as it hangs from a cord by the neck.

Power examines the cat during the methodical torture and is seen at the video's end opening up the animal's chest cavity and "inhaling deeply" the smell of death, Flumerfelt said.

"This was the natural next step for him in his escalating ghoulish fascination," he said.

Flumerfelt said Power took jobs that fuelled his macabre interests.

At the Royal Ontario Museum he worked "defleshing" carcasses so animal skeletons could later be displayed. He also took a job in the killing chamber of a slaughterhouse.

Flumerfelt said Power, a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design, rationalized his thrill-seeking as art.

"This is not an art project gone bad. That's a ruse to avoid punishment for a crime," he said, adding Power told a psychiatrist he hoped to "spin it as art as an excuse."

Flumerfelt called for maximum 30-month jail terms.

Power was released on $20,000 bail. Wennekers, who has a criminal record, has awaited his court date in jail.

Wennekers' lawyer, Andrew Czernik, said his client "doesn't have an explanation for what occurred" and has difficulty recollecting exactly what happened.

"When people get together the collective takes over and the individual is lost," said Czernik, who added that Wennekers' 10 months served in super protective custody at the Don Jail awaiting trial is punishment enough.

Czernik said Wennekers has been threatened by other inmates and now just wants to return to his family out west.

"He's done his hard time," he said.

Judge Edward Ormston will sentence the pair on April 18.