Anthony Robert Ahrens, Former Inn At Little Washington Sous Chef, Accused Of Feeding Cat To 2 Dogs

WASHINGTON -- A former sous chef at Virginia's famous Inn at Little Washington is facing a felony charge of animal cruelty for allegedly feeding a pet cat to two of his penned dogs.

The incident in question took place on Christmas Eve at the home of Anthony Robert Ahrens in Washington, Va., a tiny town about 70 miles west of the nation's capital.

According to the Rappahannock News:

Deputy Ronnie Dodson's criminal complaint identified Ahrens' father, Leo A. Shipp, as an eyewitness. Shipp had signed the complaint stating that his son, "on Dec. 24 at around 3 p.m., fed his [Ahrens'] adopted cat to his two caged dogs, which resulted in the cat's death." Other documents on file in the court indicated that during questioning by Dodson and Deputy Robbie Fincham, Ahrens did not deny the charges.

Until Monday of last week, Ahrens served as head chef at Cafe Indigo in nearby Sperryville, according to the News. At that time, the restaurant's owner, Lucille Niessen, announced he was no longer working for her. She did not elaborate, saying it would be inappropriate with the criminal investigation ongoing.

Ahrens had initially been charged with a misdemeanor crime for maiming or killing an animal, but a commonwealth attorney requested it be dropped in favor of a more serious charge of torturing or willfully inflicting inhumane injury or pain to the animal, as a direct result causing its death.

The Inn at Little Washington is an internationally acclaimed 34-year-old country inn and restaurant that's known as a luxury retreat for D.C. residents and consistently garners high praise from critics. In Washingtonian magazine's 2011 round up of the 100 best restaurants in the area, critic Todd Kliman ranked the Inn at Little Washington at No. 2.

According to Ahrens' Facebook page, he also worked for the Four Seasons hotel chain from June 2010 to June 2011 and graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Md. His profile picture features an image of a dog.

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Comments

[Thisbeautifulplanet]

05:15 AM on 01/28/2012

Obviously some human beings are simply not worthy of being called human beings.
The poor cat met a horrible death and the poor dogs have probably been abused for long.

[Blitzen37]

07:53 PM on 01/15/2012

Cats taste like chicken, and I think the father should go to jail instead of the son. Obviously this is an example of betrayal and horrible parental skills.
The village has pitch forks and torches and are looking for a good burning.
Is this a failure of upbringing or a failure of an individual?

[Thisbeautifulplanet]

05:20 AM on 01/28/2012

It's a very difficult "job" to be a parent. Some children can break honorable parents's hearts in so many ways and it seems that Ahrens did, as his own father was brave enough to turn him in to the police.

[Igor Purlantov]

01:42 PM on 01/13/2012

What a horrible thing to do. It is really sad that someone could be so cruel.

[exile]

07:03 AM on 01/12/2012

a sous chef isn't a real chef
just a worker in a kitchen

[Don Giovanni]

12:45 PM on 01/12/2012

The guy really needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but you're wrong about the role of a sous chef. He much more than just a worker in a kitchen. He/she is kitchen management in charge of things when the chef has to be away and works with the chef to design menu items. A line cook, prep cook or a pot washer is "just a worker in a kitchen." The chef gets the most pay by far in the back of the house(salaried), the sous chef(s) are next by about half or possibly two-thirds and generally are salaried, and then the line/prep cooks are next(hourly). Lastly are the pot washers. This is the organizational break-down in all the major convention hotels inwhich I've worked.

[2question]

09:18 PM on 01/11/2012

May he get the max sentence, never get another job and expire in his own filth in an alley.

[gemini68]

04:29 PM on 01/11/2012

I hop he gets jail time and that his career is over. What he did was pure evil.

[cetude]

03:10 PM on 01/11/2012

I wonder how many human customers ate cat meat.

[legit15]

06:22 PM on 01/16/2012

This comment is rude. The fact that he did something like this, outside of work hours, is no fault of the restaurant, and considering he got fired soon after it happened means that the Cafe did not approve. Please take your negativity elsewhere.

[cetude]

03:09 PM on 01/11/2012

What makes you think he just fed cat meat to dogs? If he can feed cat meat to the dogs he probably fed it to CUSTOMERS as well. Human customers. Like the Chinese restaurants do. Think about it.

[legit15]

06:25 PM on 01/16/2012

You're wrong. As I said in the other comment, the Cafe severed ties with him once they heard of this horrible incident. Again, I think it's rude to implicate this restaurant in something that was done at Ahrens home.

[Halsey]

01:17 PM on 01/11/2012

First, HUGE thanks to the father for turning in his sick son. My guess is maybe his dad saw sick behavior before and knew it had to be stopped. Ahrens is quite sick; but I DO not want him to get off on some insanity plea. (thankfully, those rarely work). I can't let myself think about the cat; it's too much horror and I do NOT blame the dogs..caged, maybe hungry and maybe fed cats or other live animals as a pattern. My gawd. I would like to drizzle him with a good honey and lay him near one of those massive anthills they have in Australia. I am that angry. But, we are "civilized" (sic) so the MAX prison sentence possible and parole barring him from ANY contact with animals. I'd also like to use his knees to practice my 7 iron swing..he'd live but it would really hurt to walk..forever. Gosh, this brings out the violent "dreams" in me and I'm not proud.

[gemini68]

04:30 PM on 01/11/2012

Agreed.

[Passerineblue]

09:07 PM on 01/11/2012

I live in VA. VA has very lax animal cruelty laws, but this is just plain murder of an animal and he should get the maximum sentence, which unfortunately will be much less than in other states. I am a lawyer and was pretty shocked at how backward VA is on animal cruelty issues. VA also has real issues with regulation of exotic pets etc.

[Karl Wilder]

12:27 PM on 01/11/2012

Feed this man to the lions. That would be justice.

[evecaren]

02:32 PM on 01/13/2012

Sounds fair to me.

[Bluelynx]

12:12 PM on 01/11/2012

In ancient Egypt, they knew how to deal with human waste like this. You messed with a divine cat, and you were dead meat.

[FOXYROSE]

09:12 AM on 01/11/2012

Are his dogs pittbulls? That's what sick individuals do - they throw kittens or cats into a dog pen to teach them to kill. My dog would never harm my two cats - if the dogs tore the cat apart, it probably was not the first time.

[werconcerned]

02:12 PM on 01/11/2012

No the are Wolf Hybrids, PLEASE don't blame pitbulls, they are vilified enough in the media. I Know for a fact they were not pitbulls because I know the neighbor personally!!!!

[eastport111]

04:09 AM on 01/11/2012

I wish someone would feed Ahrens to a pack of very hungry wolves.
He deserves to be jailed for the rest of his life,violence towards people begins with animal abuse.

[Havana Thinks]

12:01 AM on 01/11/2012

The father deserves credit for turning this despicable man in to the police. I wonder if there are other animals (missing) who he has abused. Hope the police investigate as far as possible to get to the bottom of his sick, cruelty to animal(s).

[Godweiser]

11:58 PM on 01/10/2012

Not sure what the guy's status as a chef has to do with this, except yeah, obviously he is not a big animal lover.