Motive for animal torture unclear

Keith Paul

Tuesday, April 3, 2001 | 11:24 a.m.

Metro Police and juvenile officials are trying to determine why a 12-year-old boy allegedly hid in a pet store after closing and tortured and killed animals.

The boy apparently hid in a pile of dog bed pillows at PetSmart on Tropicana Avenue Wednesday night as the store was closing, police said. The next morning workers found the boy and dead animals.

The store manager found a bird and a rat dead, several birds with feathers pulled out and two lizards missing, according to a police report.

The police report said the boy stated he "pulled the feathers from the parakeets and put a rat in a hamster ball and put it on the top shelf so it would roll off."

The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was charged with burglary -- a felony -- cruelty to animals and maiming, poisoning or killing another person's animal. He was being held at the juvenile detention center, Officer Tirso Dominguez, a police spokesman, said today.

Though he was gone overnight, he was not reported as missing or a runaway, police said.

Police have not been able to determine a motive for the attack, something a juvenile violence activist says is needed to get the child the proper help he needs.

"There is always a reason why a person hates and hates enough to hurt another person or animal," said Clementine Barfield, founder and president of Save Our Sons and Daughters, a Detroit-based group that offers anti-violence education. "He planned this. So there is something going on with him that would cause his mind to work in such a way to come up with this plan."

The juvenile detention facility has mental health and other programs for children. Clark County Department of Family and Youth Services, which runs the juvenile detention center, would not say what help the boy is getting, noting it cannot comment specifically about any child, Margy Purdue, a spokeswoman for the department said.

Children who are cruel to animals may have underlying issues, such as mental illness, abuse or neglect, or the act may just be criminal, said Patty Merrifield, clinical program manager for child and family neighborhood care services for the state Division of Child and Family Services.

"A lot of information needs to be gathered about the child and not jump to any conclusions to determine what the child's needs are and what help he needs," Merrifield said.

The state department does not have any contact with the boy in this case, but would provide mental health care if it is ordered by the courts.

Children who commit violent or criminal acts may do so not because of one reason but perhaps a combination of mental illness, abuse, neglect and deliberate criminal activity, Merrifield said.

"He needs some close attention and assessment to figure out what that mixture is," she said. "We may be outraged and upset by what happened, but we still need to try to understand why it happened so we can treat him."

The crimes the 12-year-old boy is accused of saddened Jennifer Palombi of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but they don't surprise her anymore, she said.

"I wish I could say I was shocked, but I'm not," she said. "Cruelty to animals is not new."

The SPCA had cats stored at the PetSmart, but none was injured. Palombi said she was frightened by the way the boy apparently hid in order to complete the plan.

"This is a deep concern because there are a lot of troubled children who could end up in our prison system if they don't get help," she said.