BANGOR (AP) – A national animal rights group is getting involved in a case in which three eastern Maine teenagers have been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after allegedly killing a Baileyville family’s cat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written a letter to the district attorney urging that the boys charged in the case undergo psychiatric evaluations and mandatory counseling in addition to a period of detention.

PETA, which is based in Norfolk, Va., said that people who harm animals are a threat to society, and that it is important for the case to be taken seriously given the connection between cruelty to animals and other forms of violence.

“Mental health professionals and top law enforcement officials consider animal abuse to be a red flag,” PETA said in the letter to Michael Povich, who is the district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties. “Experts agree that it is the severity of the behavior – not the species of the victim – that matters. FBI interviews with murderers showed that 36 percent had tortured and killed animals as children and that 46 percent had done so as adolescents.”

The three teens, who are 14, 15 and 16 and come from Baileyville and Princeton, were charged this month with animal cruelty in Baileyville. They are expected to appear in court on Dec. 27.

Baileyville Police Chief Phil Harriman declined to comment on how the cat was killed, but in its letter PETA said the boys bludgeoned the cat, slit its throat, stabbed it and dropped a rock on its head before discarding it in a trash bin.

Povich, whose office is in Ellsworth, said Thursday that he had not seen the PETA letter, which was mailed to his office in Machias.

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