A Weymouth woman is facing an animal cruelty charge after allegedly stomping on her kitten and killing it in a drunken rage.

WEYMOUTH - A North Weymouth woman is facing an animal-cruelty charge after allegedly stomping her kitten to death in a drunken rage.



Eleanor M. Campbell, 35, of 5 Saunders St., Apt. 1, is charged with animal cruelty and disturbing the peace.



Judge Mark Coven released Campbell on personal recognizance at her arraignment in Quincy District Court on Monday. Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Courtney Kiernan had asked Coven to hold Campbell on $5,000 cash bail with conditions that she not have custody of any animal, and abide by orders from the state Department of Children and Families.



Police responded to the multi-family home at 5 Saunders St. just before 9 p.m. on Friday for reports of a possible domestic incident. The officer found a woman, later identified as Campbell, standing in the driveway, and asked if she had been fighting with anyone in her apartment, how much alcohol she had consumed and if she was OK.



Campbell said she hadn’t been fighting with anyone and had drunk one-and-a-half beers but did not cooperate with the officer, according to the police report. The officer then asked Campbell to go inside for the night and to keep the noise down, police said.



Less than 10 minutes later, police were called back to the home for reports of a woman outside throwing things at the neighbor’s car. The officer said he found Campbell wearing only a T-shirt and socks outside yelling at the neighbor’s window.



The officer then placed Campbell under arrest for disorderly conduct and put her in another officer’s police cruiser to be taken to the station.



While investigating, the officer said he found a bloodied small kitten with what appeared to be a broken neck in front of the car parked in the driveway.



“The kitten appeared to have been stomped and flattened by someone,” the officer wrote in the police report.



Police said Campbell mentioned her daughter was in the apartment, but no children were located inside. The officer said Campbell was the only one home at her apartment and outside in the driveway both times, and it appeared she had killed the kitten in a “fit of rage” induced by alcohol.



A detective at the police station collected Campbell’s socks, which “were covered in blood, and with the splatter of blood on Campbell’s legs it confirmed that the cat was stomped by Campbell.”



The officer estimated that the kitten was about four months old and weighed three pounds, according to the police report.



A necropsy will be performed on the kitten by Forensic Veterinary Investigations LLC, which is located at the New England Wildlife Center, which is also in Weymouth, according to police.



An animal cruelty conviction in Massachusetts carries a sentence of up to seven years in state prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.



Campbell is due back in court Jan. 20 for a pretrial conference.



Reach Jessica Trufant at jtrufant@ledger.com.





