Pet sitter kills lemur while owners are away

A pet sitter killed a ring-tailed lemur while its owners were away. The sitter supposedly got upset after the lemur broke their television and destroyed a room in their house.

Afterward, the sitter paraded the crime around for days. The Cape Coral Police Department says the person who is responsible for the lemur’s death barged into a business through its back door while holding the dead lemur by the neck. The person was shouting that they did, in fact, kill that lemur.

At first, the sitter happily agreed to look after the pet lemur for a friend.

Florida is one of the few states in which you can have a lemur as a pet. WINK News talked to Pasha Donaldson, who is the vice president of Cape Coral Friends and Wildlife.

“It seems that there’s four states that allow lemurs to become pets. And that would be Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and North Carolina,” Donaldson said.

She said she was totally appalled by what she heard.

“I was appalled. Totally appalled,” Donaldson said.

The pet sitter was asked to watch the lemur for 10 days. In the beginning, everything seemed fine. That was until the lemur knocked over the sitter’s flatscreen tv and messed up their room.

The lemur’s owner offered to buy the sitter a new television. But, instead of accepting or declining the offer, the sitter threatened to kill the lemur, then did in a violent manner.

The sitter ended up beating the 2-year-old ring-tailed lemur to death.

“Whether it’s protected or not protected, there is a law saying you cannot kill any animal inhumanely. They have to be put down in a humane fashion,” Donaldson said.

Cape Coral police said they saw scrapes and cuts on the suspect’s body when they were arrested back in June. So, they were transported to Cape Coral Hospital. Upon release from the hospital, the suspect fled the State of Florida.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the suspect with the charges of aggravated animal cruelty and felony criminal mischief. The name of the suspect was redacted from the incident report.