Controversy over Cat Abusers’ Sentence

It’s a topic that is heating up on social media: should the two men guilty of pouring boiling water on a cat in Moss Point do community service at an animal shelter? The defendants received 200 hours at the Jackson County Animal Shelter as a part of their sentence in court yesterday.
The Jackson County judge that sentenced the two men could not legally make a comment. News 25 was in court yesterday and he did say the sentence was meant to teach the two men a lesson.
Community members, animal activists, and shelter volunteers tell News 25 that having two criminals around the shelter’s animals is a bad idea.
Both Laderrick and Larry Rostchild are facing jail time and community service hours for torturing a cat, which was later found dead, on video.
A volunteer at the shelter says although she is happy the judge gave Laderrick the maximum sentence for abusing an animal in Mississippi, she doesn’t think the Jackson County Shelter is the right fit for these two convicts. Volunteer Jeanene Martin said, “Everybody is going to worry about it. We come here for these animals. This is who we worry about. They come in abused and neglected and we’re not going to stand by and let someone else come in that could possibly harm them.”
Maridee Mallette with the Jackson County Animal Shelter said, “(What does it take to be a volunteer here?) A person with a big heart that loves animals and you have to be dependable.”
“If these people come here to work and do their community service is someone coming with them to make sure they don’t harm the animals,” said Martin.
Employees with the shelter say they’re short on staff as it is, making supervision another concern for volunteers. The shelter’s employees couldn’t make a comment, other than they’ve stopped having inmates and trustees volunteer over a year ago.