Duplin County teen sues surrounding video of him hitting cat with bat

DUPLIN COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – An Eastern Carolina sheriff says a teenager has been charged over a video circulating on social media that shows him hitting a cat with a baseball bat.

Duplin County Sheriff Stratton Stokes says his office received information about the attack on Monday and charged the 15-year-old on Tuesday with felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty.

WITN reviewed the widely shared video, which was a recording of a Snapchat video on someone’s phone and was posted to Facebook by someone upset about the video.

It shows a person with a bat slowly approaching a seemingly friendly cat. They then swing the bat and hit the cat once to stun it, then hit it twice more before the video cuts out.

Stokes says based on the video and his knowledge, the cat died as a result of the attack.

Stokes says the teen is a student at East Duplin High School.

Copyright 2024 WITN. All rights reserved.