A Missouri man killed at least 12 cats or kittens he acquired as pets on Craigslist, some of which he tortured or dismembered while they were still alive, prosecutors said.

Kaine Louzader, 20, was charged Friday with two felony counts of animal abuse after a man spotted him dumping a dead cat out of a bag of water near his home outside St. Peters last week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

An affidavit filed in court by St. Charles County police said Louzader — who lives with his grandparents — admitted searching wanted ads on Craigslist for cats or kittens before taking the animals back to his home, where he strangled them in a bathtub or while on a patio. He also admitted killing some of the felines by stomping on their heads, according to the affidavit.

Louzader would then dismember some of the dead animals, cutting off heads or limbs that he later dumped on streets near his home, police wrote in the affidavit.

Louzader initially told an investigator that some of the scratches on his arms, hands and fingers were from an elderly woman at a hospital where he worked, but the injuries didn’t appear to be caused by a human. Louzader later admitted that the wounds were from the last cat he killed on May 5, the affidavit states.

Louzader is suspected of killing the animals during a five-month span between January and May, KMOV reported. A total of three mutilated kittens and a dead cat had been found either on or near his street during that period, causing nearby residents to wonder why he wasn’t apprehended earlier, according to the station.

In one instance, authorities allege Louzader acquired a cat from someone in late February and that animal was found dead the following day, KSDK reported. The feline was found wet and suffering from head trauma, according to the station.

Several residents told KSDK that dead cats had been found near their homes or in nearby yards for several months.

“Someone that’s capable of killing an animal like that — it makes you wonder what more they’re capable of,” neighbor Jennifer Weber told the station.

Another neighbor said he was concerned that a suspect had not been taken into custody earlier.

“That is surprising,” neighbor Brian Conn told KMOV. “It is worrisome that somebody can freely come and go, even with all the surveillance cameras people have at their houses and outdoors, that he wasn’t picked up earlier.”

Additional charges in an ongoing investigation against Louzader are expected, a spokeswoman for St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar told The Post.