SABATTUS – A Poplar Drive man was indicted Wednesday, charged with hanging a cat by the neck after attempts to kill it with a hammer proved unsuccessful.

Bret A. Bramlett, 49, was indicted on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. He has been summoned to answer the charge in court.

Bramlett is accu sed of hanging a cat on the porch of his home Nov. 19. Investigators said Bramlett had first tried to kill the animal with a hammer but was unsuccessful.

A town official who went to Bramlett’s home at 25 Poplar Drive in mid-November spotted the dead cat hanging on the porch, according to Sabattus police.

Sabattus Animal Control Officer Jeff Cooper was sent to the home where the cat was still hanging. Police said Bramlett admitted that he had hanged the cat.

Police believe the cat was Bramlett’s pet.

Bramlett was arrested, booked and later freed from the Androscoggin County Jail on $500 cash bail. He was ordered to have no contact with animals while the case against him is pending.

In an unrelated case, a Lewiston man was indicted on an aggravated cruelty to animals charge for allegedly beating or stabbing his pit bull in the face.

Kenneth C. Simpson, 21, of 101 Birch St., was arrested Oct. 26 when police went to his house after receiving a complaint of a man and woman arguing.

At the apartment, police said they found marijuana and two emaciated dogs, one of them bleeding from the face. An animal control officer took the injured dog to the emergency animal clinic where a veterinary official said the injury was consistent with a stab wound.

According to a police report, Simpson’s girlfriend told them that he repeatedly abused the dogs inside their apartment.

Both dogs were taken from the home. Simpson was charged with cultivating marijuana, domestic threatening, cruelty to animals, disorderly conduct and refusing to submit to arrest.

The cruelty charge was upgraded to aggravated cruelty when the grand jury handed up its indictment on Wednesday.

Simpson remained at the Androscoggin County Jail Wednesday night.