LEWISTON – A Lewiston man was jailed Sunday night, charged with beating his cat and tossing it into the street outside his home.

Gary Monto, 52, of 118 Sabattus St., was arrested on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals after the injured animal was taken to a veterinary clinic and euthanized. Investigators said Monto beat the cat with a broomstick and kicked it several times before hurling the animal over a porch railing. The cat suffered extensive head trauma, an investigator said. Monto was also charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct after police went to his home to investigate.

Officers responded to Monto’s second-story home about 8 p.m. after dispatchers received a call from someone inside the apartment.

“A report came in that a male was beating on a cat. A female was heard screaming, ‘Stop! You’re killing it!'” Lewiston police Sgt. David St. Pierre said.

When officers got to the scene, Monto was inside his apartment, but the cat was not.

“We recieved further information that the suspect had thrown the cat from the porch,” St. Pierre said. “We found it laying on the pavement outside with obvious injuries and in obvious distress.”

While officers arrested Monto, St. Pierre took the cat – a female Calico named Candy – to the Animal Emergency Clinic of Mid-Maine on Strawberry Avenue. Because of the number and extent of the cat’s injuries, animal health workers there decided to euthanize the cat.

Police contacted Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout before deciding to upgrade a cruelty charge to aggravated cruelty. By Maine statue, the aggravated status of the charge is reserved for those who exhibit “depraved indifference to animal life or suffering.” The law, only a couple years old, is designed to target those who inflict extreme physical pain on animal. It was not known Monday night what prompted the alleged attack.

According to St. Pierre, the cat belonged to Monto and the woman he lives with at the Sabattus Street apartment.

Monto was released from jail late Sunday night.

Strout was continuing to investigate the matter on Monday. He estimated that cat at 2-years-old and said the animal could not be saved because of the severity of the injuries to the animal’s head.

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