Police arrest 3rd suspect in cat skinning case
by CTV.ca News Staff
He has been on top of the animal rights most wanted list for two years.
Matthew Kaczorowski, 21, the third suspect of a gruesome skinning and torture of cat, is now in Toronto police custody.
Kensington the cat was hanged from a telephone cord, skinned and tortured in July 2001. It was a slow painful death for the cat, which was captured on videotape. Kaczorowski appeared in the video.
Kaczorowski was arrested over the weekend in Vancouver after an SPCA officer, who was investigating another cruelty case, received information that he was in the area. The officer confirmed Kaczorowski's identity from a picture on a website dedicated to his capture, www.findmatt.org.
When arrested, Kaczorowski had a cat and a dog, apparently unharmed, at his home. Kaczorowski faces public mischief charges and is expected to appear in a Toronto court Wednesday for a bail hearing.
Twenty-two-year-old Jesse Power, a student at the Ontario College of Art, and 25-year-old Anthony Ryan Wennekers, were also charged in connection to the video, with cruelty to animals and mischief.
Wennekers and Power were sentenced a year ago, to time served in custody and 90 days, respectively, after pleading guilty. The Crown's appeal of Power's sentence is set for May.
The men defended the video for a school project as a work of art -- a comment on the death and suffering of animals used for meat.
During their trial, courtroom spectators were brought to tears when the gruesome tape was shown.
Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston told the courtroom he didn't sentence the men to the maximum time allowed because he felt their crime was not the worst offence possible.
A Toronto detective said the 17-minute videotape was the most difficult thing he has ever watched.
"After a couple of minutes, I was actually rooting for the cat to die to avoid the cruelties being inflicted upon it," said Det. Gordon Scott.
