Babysitting couple charged after cat tossing video is posted to Facebook

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By Karen Harrison Binette

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Kaine Fowler, in a still image from the video that got him charged with animal cruelty

 

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“I was drunk and high and just decided to play a little game with my friend and we tossed the cat back and forth and people blew the f**k up about it” – Kaine Fowler

A man and his female friend are in trouble after a video of them playing catch with a pair of cats was posted to Facebook earlier this week.

Kaine Fowler was babysitting two young children in Ashtabula, Ohio when he and Melissa Candela, who both looked like they were high, captured the action on video as they played catch with the household’s two cats, folding them into rounded shapes and roughly tossing them back and forth to one another within sight of the children. The living room couch appears to be tipped over, also.

Fowler followed up on the incident by posting video of it to his Facebook page, where it attracted a lot of attention, and not of the sort he might have wanted. The video was viewed and shared by appalled Facebook users and came to the attention of the Ashtabula Animal Protection League and the Ashtabula Animal Control Officer.

The video was posted at 3 p.m. Monday to Fowler’s Facebook page and within an hour the Ashtabula Police Department had received several calls about the video.

Ashtabula police and the city dog warden performed a welfare check on Tuesday based on the complaints. The cats were seized by the police and placed into foster care by the Ashtabula County Animal Protection League, despite their owner’s stated lack of knowledge or involvement in the incident. The tenant and owner of the cats told police he was the children’s father.

Investigators learned Fowler and Candela were babysitting two children at the time of the incident. The children’s father said he asked the pair to leave after learning what happened to his cats.

“The father acknowledged that Fowler and Candela had babysat the children and, upon learning what occurred, he asked them to leave and not return,” City Solicitor Michael Franklin said.

Fowler and Candela were charged with two counts each of cruelty to a companion animal. If convicted, they face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. An arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 25 in Municipal Court.

Franklin said, based on statements made by Fowler to NewsNet 5, additional charges of endangering children could be filed. Fowler said he was “drunk” and “high” while babysitting the children.

Fowler said he’s received threats because of what was “supposed to be this harmless video.”

“To be honest I wasn’t thinking,” Fowler told newsnet5.com’s John Kosich. “It was ignorant, stupid, foolish. I regret it, shouldn’t have done it, I feel bad for the animals you know because I do like animals.”

“I was drunk and high and just decided to play a little game with my friend and we tossed the cat back and forth and people blew the f**k up about it,” said Fowler.

“I was already f***ed up before I went to babysit,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Fowler said he regrets uploading the video to the internet Monday afternoon.

Watch as WEWS NewsChannel5 caught up with Kaine Fowler and heard the remarks seen above.

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5 thoughts on “Babysitting couple charged after cat tossing video is posted to Facebook”

  1. I hope the court nails the highest punishment to them. Drunk and high ?? Why were they ever allowed to be around children and pets ? I am glad the cats were removed…but also think Child Protection Service needs to check this situation out….did they have drugs in the house with the kids there ????

  2. Additional charges of endangering children”could” be filed?? Drunk and high while in charge of children constitutes neglect at the least and must be prosecuted. Seems like animal rights and welfare are put above child welfare too many times. Both are hand n hand here

  3. What the hell were the parents thinking when they left them in charge of their most precious possessions. They couldn’t Not have noticed that they were drunk & high? Yeah, I’m sure he regrets uploading the video, only that he got the response that they did though (he got caught!), not because he’s sorry in any way shape or form.

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