New York Man Has Neighbor's Cat Euthanized

According to the Town of Islip Animal Shelter's records, Richard DeSantis, 56, of 656 Hyman Avenue in West Islip in Suffolk County, NY, had his neighbor's Blue Russian cat, Coal, euthanized earlier this month without the owner's knowledge or consent.

A police investigation confirmed DeSantis, 56, of 656 Hyman, indeed had trapped the cat and taken it to be euthanized.

The cat's owners suspect that DeSantis played a role in the disappearance of  two family cats in 1988. Corky, a male, and Grady, a female, were euthanized in December that year at the shelter. Poice could not confirm the earlier euthanizations.

A third Fagone cat went missing in 2002 and was never found, Regina Fagone said. A different neighborhood cat around the same time was shot and killed by an unknown assailant with a pellet gun, she said.

The Fagones said DeSantis, upon his release from police custody, returned to the block and, in earshot of them, loudly mocked: "Here, kitty, kitty."