'Gothic Kittens' Trial Begins: Groomer Holly Crawford Faces Animal Cruelty Charges Over Piercing Cats

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is on trial to face animal cruelty charges for marketing "gothic kittens" with ear and neck piercings over the Internet.

The trial of 35-year-old dog groomer Holly Crawford began Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-behr-ee).

Prosecutors say she inflicted pain on the cats to make money. Attorneys for Crawford say she didn't act maliciously.

Crawford's home outside Wilkes-Barre was raided in December 2008 after the SPCA of Luzerne County received a tip that she was marketing the animals online for hundreds of dollars.

Crawford says she used sterilized needles and made sure the kittens were healing properly. She said she wasn't trying to hurt them.

Comments

[BlondeLebanese]

04:22 PM on 02/03/2010

Okay, I just had a long conversation with each of my beautiful Persian girls that we rescued in 2008 and they are very against the idea. Sqeek was sort of leaning in the direction of having her ears pierced but when I explained that it involved poking a hole in her ear that was the end of that thought. She loves nothing better than looking really cute but only if no pain is involved. Her sister was horrified by the very idea that anyone would do that to their kitties...as I am. But it sounds almost humane compared to de-clawing a cat to protect some one's furniture....a most barbaric thing to do. If someone doesn't love their cat enough to treat it humanely, perhaps they don't deserve to have a cat.

[mesomorph]

04:47 PM on 02/09/2010

Please stop sounding insane. It gives other cat owners a bad name.

[cybexg]

12:59 PM on 02/03/2010

While I think the act is horrible and I greatly appreciate my home partners (5 rescue cats) and STRONGLY advocate for better animal rights....I must ask....what is the difference between what this womany is doing to cats and what many puppy mills do to dogs (as in bob the ears, cut tails, etc.)

[barrycourage]

12:46 PM on 02/03/2010

I heard Jennifer Love Hewitt glues crystals to her kitty.








Her what?




Oh.


Nevermind.

[mesomorph]

04:48 PM on 02/09/2010

heh heh...

[wm1066]

12:15 PM on 02/03/2010

When you do it to yourself its a form of masochism,, and its your choice, when you do it to somebody else its Sadistic! There is no way of knowing how the animal feels about this, its not like they are saying "oh boy, pierce my ears!" And the size of those balls compared to thier heads, how would she like it if her mom hung baseballs from her ears?

[Pagoas]

12:07 PM on 02/03/2010

that's messed up. but i think de-clawing cats is extraordinarily cruel, too... just think how life would be for you if the 1st digit of your fingers and thumb were removed.

[loki]

11:55 AM on 02/03/2010

I hope they expand it to the farming industry too where they clip sows ears based on their birthrate and punch tags into Cows ears for tracking and inventory identifiers. This is done daily on possibly millions of animals around the country, so if its so horrible to pretty up your kitty, it much be unconscionable to mutilate a pig or a cow too.
And lest not forget running spiked tags through wild animals ears and even fish and whale fins for scientific use.

[jl4141]

11:48 AM on 02/03/2010

Mere jewelry doth not make kitteh goth: http://media.photobucket.com/image/goth%20kitty/bradybutts83/Goth-kitty.jpg

[pagangrandma]

11:37 AM on 02/03/2010

Playing the Devil's advocate for a minute, thinking of all the really horrible things that some monsters out there do to animals, this seems like a small thing. I would rather Animal Welfare Agencies use their limited resources to deal with leg traps, and poisoners; people who shoot small animals with BB guns and arrows. Kids who think it's funny to tie firecrackers on cats, and on and on....
. There's more than enough evil in this world for good people to try and stop. Pick the most important battles to fight.

[amber15]

11:51 AM on 02/03/2010

don't confuse limited resources with priorities, where there's a will there's way and why in the world do you think there are limited resources??
The US just came up 57 million to help haiti - the moneys there, you've just bought into the scarcity consciousness.

[pagangrandma]

12:10 PM on 02/03/2010

As a twenty year member of ASPCA, and the Humane Society, and a volunteer at Animal Shelters in two big cities, I've seen a lot of need go unanswered. The amount of cruelty is a neverending flood. There will never be enough volunteers, money, or time to deal with it all.

[PanFx]

01:52 PM on 02/03/2010

Relativist fallacy, try again.

[bmora]

11:36 AM on 02/03/2010

You know it pains me to see a cat in pain. I have 2 of my own and love them like children, but until we treat our own specie better, there is no hope for other animals.

[Lantzali]

11:35 AM on 02/03/2010

How is this any different than branding cattle or piercing their ears for tagging purposes?

[CellarDoor]

12:07 PM on 02/03/2010

Simple. It's not necessary. It's human vanity forced on an animal. And, in point of fact, cattle are not pets any more than pets are food sources in the United States.

Branding cattle and piercing their ears for tagging isn't very nice either but surely you can see a difference in branding a cow for food and piercing the ear of a kitten for human vanity?

[Lantzali]

01:22 PM on 02/04/2010

How do we know it wasn't necessary. Were they shelter cats? Would they have just been put to sleep after not being adopted? Maybe their little lives depended on it. How do we know?

[Ashley Gleed]

10:10 PM on 02/05/2010

So hurting an animal that isn't a pet is acceptable?

[Chris Siepel]

11:35 AM on 02/03/2010

How does this compare to declawing cats or cutting a dogs tail or ears? Not a fan of any of these practices.

[Ivriniel]

12:09 PM on 02/03/2010

It doesn't say it in this article, but in other articles on this topic they report that she was docking the cats' tails as well. They had rings on their tails designed to make the ends fall off.

[TFDNYC]

11:35 AM on 02/03/2010

Revolting. But if you're going to get uptight about this you must also get uptight about tail-clipping, ear clipping, and cat declawing. The only invasive act that makes sense is spay/neuter and I have mixed emotions about that too. All this cosmetic/ human convenience stuff is just unconscionable.

[amber15]

11:52 AM on 02/03/2010

we DO get uptight about all of that -laws are being passed right now to stop all of this stupid human behavior.

[Paul108]

11:23 AM on 02/03/2010

It's so ironic how readily people condemn others for minor acts of animal cruelty but continue to indulge their senses by eating the bodies of animals who were brutally slaughtered as the grand finale of tortured lives.

[JustFrogs]

11:29 AM on 02/03/2010

PETA activist, I presume. (aka arrogant P.R.I.C.K)

[Ashley Gleed]

10:12 PM on 02/05/2010

Being presumptuous is slightly more arrogant and prickish than caring about the pain of animals.

[amber15]

11:53 AM on 02/03/2010

I agree!!! Humans are so lost in their ignorance and addictions of using innocent beings just for a momentary pleasure. Idiotic!

[JustFrogs]

11:14 AM on 02/03/2010

What horrible cruelty. Those cats are not able to say "yes, please, I want to have pain inflicted upon me so you humans think I am cute because I am imitating you by wearing earrings."

I saw some posts about clipping of dogs ears and tails to make them more attractrive, and that is horrible as well.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

12:00 PM on 02/03/2010

Although I'm not defending this woman, how many parents have their daughters' ears pierced before the child can give consent? Shouldn't we be more strict on what parents can do to their children than what people should do to animals? If only slightly more strict?

[kathy001]

11:00 AM on 02/03/2010

I don't understand why this comment from seroquel was deleted but it is absolutely correct and very well said.

Though I can understand the woman doing it to herself, these cats didn't and aren't able to give consent.

So, yes, it's a crime-no defending this.

When homeless cats are fixed, a tip of the right ear is cut off to identify them from unfixed cats. This is necessary when trapping and neutering so time and resources aren't wasted.

Cats need their ears to be able to move in all directions. So what this woman did is criminal, and abusive.