I didn't know if I should post this here or not, but when I heard about this story I was so upset and disgusted I thought I would let other people know about this. I cannot believe there are so-called humans in this world who would do such a thing to an innocent animal. I know the law is not structured to punish them as they should be punished, and in most cases I like to think of myself as a pacifist but in this instance if I could, I would inflict the same pain and suffering on them that they inflicted on this poor little creature.
Not to mention I seem to remember a study that said that young people who start out torturing animals often become adults who are psycho/sociopaths that in some cases gravitate to torturing humans eg. Jeffrey Dalmer so if you don't think this is seriously disturbing, think again!
Man accused of being in videotaped torture and killing of cat denied bail
Web site leads to arrest in cat mutilation
Mike Oliveira
National Post
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
CREDIT: Lincoln Clarkes, Vancouver
Matthew Kaczorowski, seen in a photograph taken in Vancouver in July, 2001, has been arrested in the mutilation and killing of a cat in Toronto.
TORONTO -- A man accused in the videotaped torture and killing of a cat was denied bail at a court hearing in Toronto Wednesday.
Matthew Kaczorowski, was arrested by Toronto Police Saturday in Vancouver and charged with mischief. Kaczorowski is accused of appearing in the videotaped torture, skinning and killing of a domestic cat in a Toronto rooming house.
When arrested, Kaczorowski had a cat and a dog, apparently unharmed, at his home, a newspaper reported.
Katie Woodward has begun to throw away the piles of posters and flyers that advertised her Web site, www.findmatt.org, now that the object of its search -- 21-year-old Kaczorowski -- has been found.
Kaczorowski is accused of helping to mutilate a cat in the spring of 2001, and his Saturday arrest brings an end to a campaign spearheaded by Woodward, who spent the better part of the past year trying to track him down.
Her long days and late nights bore fruit on the weekend, when a tip on the Web site led Toronto police to Vancouver, where Kaczorowski had been hiding since he allegedly helped skin, decapitate and disembowel a house cat about two years ago.
"The police have been complimenting me and thanking me," Woodward said yesterday from her home in Haliburton, Ont. "It made a difference because the Web site is how Matt was found."
The search for Kaczorowski began in the spring of 2001, when detectives, acting on a tip, raided a Toronto home. Inside, they discovered a headless cat corpse inside a refrigerator.
A videotape seized nearby showed what happened to the decapitated cat.
During the 17-minute video, three men are shown teasing a black-and-white cat with a mouse. Suddenly, the men begin to kick, stab and mutilate the tiny animal, skinning it and gouging out one of its eyes before dangling it from a coat hanger.
"After a couple of minutes, I was actually rooting for the cat to die to avoid the cruelties being inflicted upon it," Detective Gordon Scott said a few months after watching the tape, which he described as the worst thing he has ever seen.
The tape enraged animal-rights activists, but not only because of the obvious cruelty. Jesse Power, 22, and Anthony Wennekers, 25, had created the tape as an art project for one of Power's classes at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
The students called the video an artistic statement denouncing meat eaters.
The tape was shown during the pair's trial on animal-cruelty charges last year. Many spectators turned away or covered their eyes as the cat wailed.
Prosecutors requested 2 1/2 -year prison sentences for the accused, but Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston said the crimes were "not the worst offence possible.
"There are worse ways that this cat could have died," he said in sentencing Power to 90 days in jail to be served over 16 weekends, followed by an 18-month conditional sentence. Wennekers was sentenced to time served because he had remained in jail since his arrest the previous May. The two men also each received three years probation .
Woodward found the awful torture, combined with the light sentence, difficult to stomach. And the third alleged cat killer -- known only at the time as Matt -- had disappeared.
"I just wanted to help but I wasn't quite sure what to do," the 21-year-old said. "I spoke to two detectives about starting a campaign. I was told that no one was really dedicating a full-time effort to the case and so I saw that I could help."
For the next few months, Woodward tacked up posters and sent out mass e-mails to attract hits to a Web site, using a domain name -- www.findmatt.org -- donated by a radio listener that heard about Woodward's crusade.
"It was hard to get media coverage at first," she said, "I started the campaign a year after the tapes were found, so it was seen as an older issue."
In the end, it was a few lucky breaks that brought an end to the search.
Police had told Woodward they believed Kaczorowski might have fled his life as a squeegee kid in Toronto and resettled somewhere in British Columbia, most likely Vancouver.
Woodward discussed the hunch during a subsequent interview on a Vancouver talk radio station, ending the segment with a plug for her Web site.
An employee with the Vancouver Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals then visited the site and recognized a photograph of Kaczorowski -- taken from the torture video -- as a local homeless person.
"This is why we exist, to try and stop this," said Lorie Chortyk, a spokeswoman for the BC SPCA. "Unfortunately, in our line of work we see horrific things but personally, I think this is just sickening. To think three young men could do this, and think what that cat must've gone through."
After receiving the tip, Vancouver police called their counterparts in Toronto, who put two detectives on a plane to bring the fugitive home. He is scheduled to appear at a bail hearing this morning.
When he was arrested, he was found with a dog and a cat.
"It doesn't seem real, I still can't believe it," Woodward said. "I knew we were going to capture him.... I just didn't know it would be this quick."
Her Web site has been updated to acknowledge the arrest, and she promises to document every piece of news during Kaczorowski's court appearances. A charge of cruelty to animals has been dropped -- it expired after six months -- but he will face a mischief charge.
If the case goes to trial, she plans to make the three-hour commute to Toronto.
In the meantime, she plans on spoiling her two cats and cleaning up the stacks of paper in her bedroom.
"It's been a pretty interesting time," she said. "I want to keep some of it in a scrapbook but a lot of it is going to the garbage. I don't have room for it all."
moliveira@nationalpost.com
Not to mention I seem to remember a study that said that young people who start out torturing animals often become adults who are psycho/sociopaths that in some cases gravitate to torturing humans eg. Jeffrey Dalmer so if you don't think this is seriously disturbing, think again!
Man accused of being in videotaped torture and killing of cat denied bail
Web site leads to arrest in cat mutilation
Mike Oliveira
National Post
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
CREDIT: Lincoln Clarkes, Vancouver
Matthew Kaczorowski, seen in a photograph taken in Vancouver in July, 2001, has been arrested in the mutilation and killing of a cat in Toronto.
TORONTO -- A man accused in the videotaped torture and killing of a cat was denied bail at a court hearing in Toronto Wednesday.
Matthew Kaczorowski, was arrested by Toronto Police Saturday in Vancouver and charged with mischief. Kaczorowski is accused of appearing in the videotaped torture, skinning and killing of a domestic cat in a Toronto rooming house.
When arrested, Kaczorowski had a cat and a dog, apparently unharmed, at his home, a newspaper reported.
Katie Woodward has begun to throw away the piles of posters and flyers that advertised her Web site, www.findmatt.org, now that the object of its search -- 21-year-old Kaczorowski -- has been found.
Kaczorowski is accused of helping to mutilate a cat in the spring of 2001, and his Saturday arrest brings an end to a campaign spearheaded by Woodward, who spent the better part of the past year trying to track him down.
Her long days and late nights bore fruit on the weekend, when a tip on the Web site led Toronto police to Vancouver, where Kaczorowski had been hiding since he allegedly helped skin, decapitate and disembowel a house cat about two years ago.
"The police have been complimenting me and thanking me," Woodward said yesterday from her home in Haliburton, Ont. "It made a difference because the Web site is how Matt was found."
The search for Kaczorowski began in the spring of 2001, when detectives, acting on a tip, raided a Toronto home. Inside, they discovered a headless cat corpse inside a refrigerator.
A videotape seized nearby showed what happened to the decapitated cat.
During the 17-minute video, three men are shown teasing a black-and-white cat with a mouse. Suddenly, the men begin to kick, stab and mutilate the tiny animal, skinning it and gouging out one of its eyes before dangling it from a coat hanger.
"After a couple of minutes, I was actually rooting for the cat to die to avoid the cruelties being inflicted upon it," Detective Gordon Scott said a few months after watching the tape, which he described as the worst thing he has ever seen.
The tape enraged animal-rights activists, but not only because of the obvious cruelty. Jesse Power, 22, and Anthony Wennekers, 25, had created the tape as an art project for one of Power's classes at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
The students called the video an artistic statement denouncing meat eaters.
The tape was shown during the pair's trial on animal-cruelty charges last year. Many spectators turned away or covered their eyes as the cat wailed.
Prosecutors requested 2 1/2 -year prison sentences for the accused, but Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston said the crimes were "not the worst offence possible.
"There are worse ways that this cat could have died," he said in sentencing Power to 90 days in jail to be served over 16 weekends, followed by an 18-month conditional sentence. Wennekers was sentenced to time served because he had remained in jail since his arrest the previous May. The two men also each received three years probation .
Woodward found the awful torture, combined with the light sentence, difficult to stomach. And the third alleged cat killer -- known only at the time as Matt -- had disappeared.
"I just wanted to help but I wasn't quite sure what to do," the 21-year-old said. "I spoke to two detectives about starting a campaign. I was told that no one was really dedicating a full-time effort to the case and so I saw that I could help."
For the next few months, Woodward tacked up posters and sent out mass e-mails to attract hits to a Web site, using a domain name -- www.findmatt.org -- donated by a radio listener that heard about Woodward's crusade.
"It was hard to get media coverage at first," she said, "I started the campaign a year after the tapes were found, so it was seen as an older issue."
In the end, it was a few lucky breaks that brought an end to the search.
Police had told Woodward they believed Kaczorowski might have fled his life as a squeegee kid in Toronto and resettled somewhere in British Columbia, most likely Vancouver.
Woodward discussed the hunch during a subsequent interview on a Vancouver talk radio station, ending the segment with a plug for her Web site.
An employee with the Vancouver Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals then visited the site and recognized a photograph of Kaczorowski -- taken from the torture video -- as a local homeless person.
"This is why we exist, to try and stop this," said Lorie Chortyk, a spokeswoman for the BC SPCA. "Unfortunately, in our line of work we see horrific things but personally, I think this is just sickening. To think three young men could do this, and think what that cat must've gone through."
After receiving the tip, Vancouver police called their counterparts in Toronto, who put two detectives on a plane to bring the fugitive home. He is scheduled to appear at a bail hearing this morning.
When he was arrested, he was found with a dog and a cat.
"It doesn't seem real, I still can't believe it," Woodward said. "I knew we were going to capture him.... I just didn't know it would be this quick."
Her Web site has been updated to acknowledge the arrest, and she promises to document every piece of news during Kaczorowski's court appearances. A charge of cruelty to animals has been dropped -- it expired after six months -- but he will face a mischief charge.
If the case goes to trial, she plans to make the three-hour commute to Toronto.
In the meantime, she plans on spoiling her two cats and cleaning up the stacks of paper in her bedroom.
"It's been a pretty interesting time," she said. "I want to keep some of it in a scrapbook but a lot of it is going to the garbage. I don't have room for it all."
moliveira@nationalpost.com