An Iowa man was arrested after brutally killing a rabbit named Petunia at an animal shelter in Des Moines. Police arrested 64-year-old Bobby Carothers, who admitted to the police that he was responsible for the bunny’s death.
Carothers told the authorities that he was “having rabbit stew,” but left the rabbit to bleed out after staff at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa shelter chased him out. In a release, the animal welfare agency described the scene as “beyond gruesome.” They stated, “Our sweet bunny, Petunia, had been violently killed.”
Carothers had been asked to leave by shelter staff. The shelter recounted,
From the time we opened until past closing time, our adoption team had been busy helping customers find their new pet family member. As our team began performing their closing duties, including performing a final check on the animals for the evening, there was still a man in the shelter. They asked him to leave since we were now closed.
Minutes after the man left, staff found the gruesome scene. As reported by the Des Moines Register, Petunia had been brutally killed with a stick.
The shelter is shaken and heartbroken by the cruel incident, writing:
Petunia didn’t deserve this horrific act of cruelty, and our team didn’t deserve to find a bunny they loved and cared for in that condition.
We are all hurting this morning as we process last night’s events and mourn the loss of sweet Petunia. We feel violated that our animals and team could be victimized in this way, in the last place we could have imagined. We will do everything in our power to ensure that what little justice is possible will be had, but this fight to improve Iowa’s animal cruelty laws just got a lot more personal.
Carothers is facing charges of animal torture and trespassing.
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