| The Atlanta Journal & Constitution (morning edition) - Saturday, July 10, 1999 CALLS OF SUPPORT POUR IN FOR BADLY BURNED KITTEN Touch and go: Hall feline undergoes surgery. - by Milo Ippolito (staff writer) A Gainesville animal hospital and the Hall County Humane society have been flooded with calls after police say a kitten was set on fire by two boys. Callers from as far as Texas and Montana expressed sympathy for 3-month-old Dunkin, vented their anger at the abusers or offered to donate money for the kitten's care. "We've had to bring extra people just to answer te telephone, " Rick Aiken, director of the Hall Humane Society, said Friday. "There hasn't been one or two minutes between phone calls." The severly burned orange tabby's condition was described as touch and go Friday. Its skin is peeling, and surgery was performed to remove large pieces of burned skin, said Dunkin's owner, Lisa Fetterolf. "He's in pain. But he is a very, very sweet little kitten," said Mary McCurry, office manager at Browns Bridge Animal Hospital, where Dunkin has undergone surgery. "He responds to any kind of attention. He purrs. Even with all that's going on." Two youths, ages 12 and 15, are charged with animal cruelty and arson in the Monday incident and were ordered Friday to remain in custody until the case goes to juvenile court Wednesday. Their names were withheld because of their ages. Authorities say the neighborhood boys came into Fetterolf's yard and began talking with her daughters. When one of the boys started swinging the kitten by its tail, the girls told them to leave and ran into the house, Fetterolf said. Minutes later, her 19-year old son, who is legally blind but has some sight, smelled smoke. He dashed out and sprayed the fire with a hose. "I went out and looked and the kitten was lying in the middle of it, charred, black and looking dead," Fetterolf said. The boys said they doused the kitten with gasoline and set it on fire, authorities said. The boys could land in detention until age 21 if convicted in juvenile court. - ************************************************************************ "Donations toward Dunkin's medical treatment may be sent to Hall Couty Humane Society, Dollars for Dunkin, 845 W. Ridge Road, Gainesville, GA 30501" - |
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