Upstate NY Firefighters Indicted in Killing of 4 Kittens

BINGHAMTON -- Humans are said to be superior to other animals, but no animal would do to another what two former Chenango Bridge firefighters are accused of doing to four abandoned kittens last June, the president of an animal rescue organization said.

"To take four living creatures and smash them with hammers -- that is pretty depraved," said Camilla MacLeod, president of the Animal Care Council, a nonprofit organization involved in animal rescue.

William R. Terrell, 32, and Daniel J. Williams, 28, have been indicted on one felony count each of aggravated cruelty to animals and one misdemeanor count of overdriving or torturing animals, said Cheryl A. Mancini, the Broome County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case.

Mancini accused the two Kattelville Road residents of hitting the kittens with a hammer and applying pressure to kill them. She would not say how the men applied the pressure. No arraignment date has been set, Mancini said.

The four kittens were killed at the fire company's older Kattelville Road station, which since has been razed. The new station was built next door.

The station is about 3 miles from MacLeod's Hillcrest home.

MacLeod's organization would gladly have taken the kittens and found homes for them, she said.

Terrell and Williams have been suspended from the volunteer fire company, Mancini said.

Williams is a paid firefighter for the Village of Endicott. Mayor Michael E. Colella declined to discuss the indictment or the effect it might have on Williams' job.

If convicted, the men could be sentenced to up to a year in jail on the felony charge, Mancini said.