LEWISTON — A man has been charged with criminal cruelty to animals after allegedly trying to neuter a cat with a rubber band.
Derek Edgerton, 25, was charged Monday. He recently moved from Lewiston to Dixfield.
Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout said Edgerton was friends with the cat’s owner and “thought he was helping him out” by trying to neuter the cream-colored, lynx-point cat at home.
The Greater Androscoggin Humane Society received the cat late last month. The shelter’s veterinarian discovered that someone had tried to neuter the cat with a rubber band and the area was badly infected and rotting.
The cat underwent surgery and treatment at a vet hospital. He spent weeks recovering at the shelter.
Shelter workers named the cat Blake after the street where he was found. They believe he is about 3-years-old and part Siamese.
Blake was adopted on Aug. 15.
If convicted, Edgerton faces a minimum $500 fine and could be sentenced to counseling and prohibited from owning animals.
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- Blake the cat was adopted Aug. 15 at the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society. Blake was abandoned by his owners in a Blake Street apartment after someone attempted to neuter the male cat with a rubber band.
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