Florida teen ‘who likes to beat up cats’ accused of waterboarding, tossing animal from balcony: Sheriff

PALM BAY, Fla. - A Florida teen is facing animal cruelty charges after investigators say he tortured a cat on several occasions.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said earlier this month, that officers with the Palm Bay Police Department responded to a domestic call. When they arrived, officers said 18-year-old Kieran McKinney was there with a person he had gotten into an altercation with, and they discovered he had committed an act of animal cruelty.

As officers began digging deeper, they said they found out there were incidents that took place outside of the city and reached out to the sheriff’s office for assistance.

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"This guy has just been going off on a cat at the house," Sheriff Wayne Ivey explained. "Most of the time, it was in retaliation for different events that were going on. In one of them, he grabbed the cat and literally threw it on a couch. In the Palm Bay case, he grabbed the cat, threw it off the third-floor balcony, across the parking lot into an empty lot and broke its leg."

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said the McKinney threw the cat from a third-floor balcony breaking its leg. Image is courtesy of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff added that McKinney had also ‘waterboarded’ the cat.

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"He actually put the cat in its carrier where it couldn’t get out, couldn’t escape three different times and sprayed water into the cage, torturing this poor cat because the cat had an accident," Ivey said.

Kieran McKinney is accused of 'waterboarding' a cat three times. Image is courtesy of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

Ivey said that McKinney also deprived the cat of food and water because of ‘the cat’s behavior.’

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"I would love to treat you just like you treated this cat, but the law keeps me from doing that just like it should’ve kept you from doing that," Ivey stated.