David Charette Jr., 48, of Fort Myers, Florida, is charged with aggravated animal cruelty after his 14-year-old daughter called 911 on him. She told deputies that when she gets in trouble, her father kills her kittens as punishment. This time, she said he held her two-month-old kitten, Luna, under running water, hit her with a nail polish bottle, and put her in a clothes dryer. Luna survived and is recovering.

According to Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, this wasn't an isolated incident. Two other kittens were reportedly killed in similar ways over the past year, one in June and one in November, and buried in the backyard. Family members reportedly knew but didn't report it earlier because they were afraid of retaliation.

This pattern matters beyond the animal cruelty charge itself. Using violence against a child's pet as a tool of punishment is a recognized warning sign that experts associate with coercive control and child abuse, not just cruelty toward animals. A teenager who watched her father kill her kittens whenever she was "in trouble" was living under the threat of that violence herself.

Charette is now in jail on animal cruelty charges, and three adult cats were removed from the home for evaluation. That's an important first step, but it shouldn't be the last one. This case deserves a full criminal prosecution, and the household deserves a real child welfare review, not just an animal control follow-up.

Sign this petition to demand Lee County prosecutors pursue the strongest charges against David Charette and demand Florida's child welfare agency conduct a full investigation into the home to protect his daughter.