WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of extremely heinous criminal acts committed against an animal.
A teenage foreign national in New Jersey pled guilty this month to what one animal rights activist said was the “worst” case of animal cruelty she had ever seen in her 35 years of working to protect animals.
Bani J. Mezquititla, 19, pled guilty in Monmouth County Superior Court to two counts of animal cruelty, including Animal Cruelty by Tormenting, Torturing, or Unnecessarily or Cruelly Abusing a Living Animal Resulting in its Death, and Animal Cruelty by Using or Causing or Procuring the Use of an Animal or Creature in Any Kind of Sexual Manner, both third-degree crimes, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told The Daily Wire that the agency is involved in “investigating the case” to determine next steps regarding potential action from its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division.
The Asbury Park Press reported that Superior Court Judge Chad N. Cagan told Mezquititla that he faces deportation because of the criminal conviction.
Mezquititla kept his back to the courtroom gallery while admitting that he began raping his female cat from December 2022 until February 2023, the report said.
The Asbury Park Police Department launched its criminal investigation after Mezquititla’s roommate turned him in after Mezquititla showed her images of the cat being tortured and told her that he threw the cat out the window.
Mezquititla confessed to investigators that he pleasured himself in front of the cat before escalating the abuse to raping the cat with sharp objects and later raping using his genitals, according to a report from the Asbury Park Patch. He also ejaculated inside the cat, the report said.
The animal was seriously injured, including “both vaginally and rectally,” from the raping, the report said.
When he was first arrested, law enforcement asked him if he had ever had sexual contact with the animal, to which he allegedly laughed and said: “No, I’m not a psycho.”
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Law enforcement said that he repeatedly tortured the animal by creating a pulley device that he used to strangle the cat.
“He restrained her during the torture by binding her paws behind her back with miniature handcuffs,” the Asbury Park Press report said. “He also cut off her tongue and part of her jaw while she was still alive and took photographs and video of some of the torture.”
The videos showed the animal desperately gasping for air, shaking, and twitching.
A prosecutor on the case said, “You can see the cat struggling for its life and in the same picture you can see him smirking.”
Janine Motta, director of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, said that this was “the worst [case] I’ve seen.”
Mezquititla was sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison for each charge, but as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend that the sentences are served concurrently, meaning that he would only serve a maximum of five years instead of 10.
He is also permanently banned from owning any animals.