Man charged in connection to Springfield cat death faces additional animal cruelty charge – WJXT News4JAX

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WEATHER ALERT
Erik Avanier, Reporter
Published: December 8, 2022, 9:12 PM
Updated: December 8, 2022, 10:37 PM
Erik Avanier, Reporter
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Some details included in this report are graphic in nature. Discretion advised.
A man who was arrested in November in connection with the death of a cat in the Springfield neighborhood is now facing an additional count of animal cruelty, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest report obtained Thursday by News4JAX.
The report shows Blake Miles faces the second felony charge in connection with an incident involving a cat at a rooming house on Market Street in early November. According to the report, the cat’s owner contacted police after seeing news reports of Miles’ arrest. The cat’s owner, the report states, told JSO that his cat disappeared and he heard a “loud commotion.” coming from the bathroom. The report states when he knocked on the door that Miles told him his cat wasn’t in there and the noise was him trying to unclog the toilet.
According to the report, after Miles left the bathroom, the owner went into the bathroom and found his cat soaked and covered in feces in the shower. He told police the cat was unable to move and “on the verge of death.” He told police the suspect “attempted to drown the victim’s cat,” the report states.
News4JAX visited the home. A resident, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said she remembers the incident.
“The little baby’s paws were all swollen. And he was like … I don’t know if he was choking or what, but he had to rush him to the vet,” the resident said.
“I didn’t let him handle my dog because one day, he grabbed my dog,” the resident added. “I say ‘Hey. No. Don’t do that. That’s my child.’ He said, ‘I was just playing.’ No.”
The arrest report also mentions an incident in which someone else allegedly caught Miles trying to flush a cat down a toilet.
Prior to Miles’s arrest, Springfield cat owners had been on high alert after police say a man fitting his description was seen on video snatching Ashi — a family’s cat — off its owner’s front porch and then wrestling the animal into a tarp. The tarp was later found, but Ashi has not been located.
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Beginning in mid-November, JSO said it began receiving phone calls related to missing and/or dead cats in the Springfield area. The Sheriff’s Office said officers responded to multiple calls over a couple of weeks.
“As a result of the complaints, and seeing a pattern developing in the area, officers immediately began canvassing the known areas of the reported incidents attempting to put a name to the face of the potential suspect,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a previous news release.
As of this report, Miles is only charged with animal cruelty in two incidents in the Springfield area.
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