“It is frightening that this ‘boys-will-be-boys’ attitude has been so prevalent in this case, especially in light of the research that has been done proving links between animal cruelty and future violence against humans.”
— Kathy Robnett

Student acquitted on animal cruelty charge
Animal rescue group outraged by jury’s decision
Associated Press

WACO — An animal rescue group is outraged by a former Baylor University baseball player’s acquittal on an animal cruelty charge and by the dismissal of the charge against his former teammate.

A McLennan County jury on Tuesday acquitted Derek Brehm, 20, of San Antonio on the Class A misdemeanor charge, stemming from the March 2001 shooting and decapitation of a cat.

Prosecutor Crawford Long then dismissed the animal cruelty charge against Clint Bowers, of Robinson, who still attends Baylor but is not on the baseball team.

“It is frightening that this ‘boys-will-be-boys’ attitude has been so prevalent in this case, especially in light of the research that has been done proving links between animal cruelty and future violence against humans,” said Kathy Robnett, president and co-director of Fuzzy Friends Rescue, a Waco animal shelter.

She said the men, who were suspended from the baseball team for eight games after their arrest, need counseling.

Brehm, who now attends the University of Texas at Arlington, testified Tuesday that Bowers shot the cat on a restaurant patio near campus.

After that, Brehm told the jury, he skinned and decapitated the cat so he could keep and display the skull. Brehm also said he loved pets.

Brehm said he performed 50 hours of community service at the Waco Animal Shelter and lost his scholarship as part of his punishment from Baylor.

The jury was told that for a conviction, the state had to prove that Brehm tortured the cat or killed someone’s animal without that person’s consent.

Prosecutors said the restaurant’s night manager, who named the cat Queso because it loved spicy cheese sauce, owned the animal or at least had a “greater right to possession” of the cat than Brehm.

But Brehm’s attorney Russ Hunt said it was a feral cat without an owner and that the state’s animal cruelty law was not meant to protect wild beasts.

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