I just read this story and it made me angry and sad. I do hope that karma catches up with this little bastard right away. A Long Beach man who offered a cat to his girlfriend as a gift to end their fighting allegedly strangled the feline in Redondo Beach early today when she told him she didn’t want it, police said. Sergei Smirnoff, 23, was arrested about 1:10 a.m. when police responded to a residence in the 2300 block of Carnegie Lane and found him and the dead cat — Roxy — in the garage. “From what we can gather, in a fit of rage, he killed the cat,” Redondo Beach police Sgt. Shawn Freeman said. “He strangled the cat resulting in its death.” Police believe the cat was a peace offering to end recent arguments, and that he had not intended to harm it, Freeman said. Smirnoff obtained the 3- to 5-year-old cat at a rescue shelter within the last week. Smirnoff went to the girlfriend’s residence and tried to give her the cat, but she told him she couldn’t support it. “Her indication was for him to leave and to take the cat with him,” Freeman said. Witnesses called police when they saw Smirnoff sitting in the garage with his hands wrapped around the cat’s throat. The girlfriend did not know what happened until police officers knocked on her door. Smirnoff was arrested on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and was held at the Redondo Beach jail on $20,000 bail. He is scheduled for arraignment Monday at Torrance court.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 21:33:18 +0000