Teacher Acquitted in Cat Snuffing Case - Update

(West Palm Beach, Florida) Middle school teacher Allison Dinsmore, 27, was found not guilty yesterday on two felony counts of animal cruelty after a jury deliberated for five hours. Obviously, the jury was satisfied with her defense.

Dinsmore had testified an ex-boyfriend stalked her and was sometimes violent. So she avoided her Boca Raton apartment.

Eventually Dinsmore said her life became so "consumed" with fear and school, she lost track of time and stopped feeding the animals. A necropsy showed the cats could have been dead for a few weeks.

Outside the courtroom, Allison's father, Robert Dinsmore, was irate and threatened to take some unspecified action against the prosecutor's office.

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Teacher Suspended in Cat Snuffing Case - Update
[Previous 4/9/09 post]
(Boca Raton, Florida) In the latest developments, 26-year-old Allison Dinsmore was sent home with pay until further notice by Congress Middle School Principal Kathy Harris. She was instructed to have no contact with students.

Previously, Dinsmore's lawyer, Jordan Lewin of Miami, tried to explain why she left and never returned to care for the cats.

His client was a "victim of an abusive situation in which her former apartment presented a zone of danger that was real and significant." He would not explain why Dinsmore felt that way.

Meanwhile, a group called the People Against Animal Torture and Snuff has started a petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fire-palm-beach-co-fl-cat-snuffing-teacher) to demand that Dinsmore be fired. In the petition, Dinsmore is called a sadist, a monster and a cat snuffer.

Naturally, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights and vegetarian groups are closely watching the Dinsmore case.


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Teacher Accused of Starving Cats to Death
[Previous 4/1/09 post]
(Boca Raton, Florida) A 26-year-old teacher at Congress Middle School, Allison Dinsmore, was arrested yesterday for allegedly starving her two cats to death in her apartment. Dinsmore faces two counts of felony cruelty to animals.

Dinsmore, who now lives in Miami, is accused of letting her two domestic cats die in her Boca Raton apartment while she said she was busy working and spending time with her boyfriend and family.

Investigators said her cats clawed up the apartment in a frantic search for food as they starved for up to a month before they died.

The corpses then rotted in the filthy apartment about a month before an apartment manager found them.

Dinsmore was booked into custody at the Palm Beach County Jail and later released on $4,500 bond.

Arguably, this is a serious case of neglect by a supposedly responsible teacher and one must wonder whether it's a lapse of judgment or a behavioral trait. Dinsmore allegedly left the cats without food for two months. Let's hope she watches over children more responsibly.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.