A young Russian woman got more than she’d bargained for after posting a kitty torture video involving a laundry machine. She is now facing a criminal child abuse case, as online outrage uncovered footage on her social media page of a kid beating as well.
The initial video that got the Russian internet and animal rights activists fuming was filmed by a young couple in the Urals city of Magnitogorsk earlier in April, but surfaced in the news on Monday after heated discussions on a local internet forum. The woman that turns the washing machine on, identified as 19-year-old Dinara Iskulova, posted the clip on her social media page.
Iskulova and her boyfriend decided to “punish” the cat in this way because it hadn’t used its litter box. In the video, as the machine starts to rotate, the terrified animal cries, frantically trying to keep the drum in place. The couple, meanwhile, jokes about the cat’s panic before letting the poor creature out.
Punish Russian couple that placed cat in washing machine for failing to use litter box! http://t.co/zvL8EPSlUopic.twitter.com/y55MxN05Cn
— YouSign.org (@YouSignorg) June 3, 2015
Days after the video went viral, the woman attracted the interest
of Magnitogorsk police – for a different but not entirely
unrelated reason.
Another video on the Iskulova’s page featured a group of young
people kicking a boy rolled up in a carpet. A six or
seven-year-old child can be heard screaming and crying. The boy’s
33-year-old mother also appears in the video, but does nothing to
stop the beating.
“Following from the evidence uncovered in the investigation
into what happened, a criminal case for torture of a minor has
been opened,” the spokesperson for the office of criminal
investigations for the Chelyabinsk region, told Chelyabinsk.ru
website.
Public prosecutor Sergey Gorshkov told the website that “The
identities of all the people involved have been established, as
well as the locations where these flagrant acts took place. All
the necessary evidence is being gathered at the moment.”
According to media reports, Iskulova and her friends have not
admitted to any wrongdoing. As to the cat, they insist it was a
necessary “educational” measure.
Details have emerged regarding Iskulova’s background suggesting
that she grew up in a violent, drinking family, and that she had
already been registered with police for an unspecified minor
offence.
It also became known, that her mother has recently died.
The young woman said she has received plenty of threats since the
video of the cat abuse went public.