Diagnosed as a psychopathic serial cat killer, 26-year-old Aleeta Raugust admitted to purchasing cats through Kijiji just to kill them between 2018 and 2023. The first incident occurred between January 1st of 2018 and December 31st of 2018 when she had broken up with her boyfriend; Raugust strangled a cat (that survived) and then abandoned the animal in the park. The actual killings did not begin until October 2022; prior to that, Raugust would maim and torture the cats (para. 465). She made recordings of the killings and watched them repeatedly because of the pleasure it gave her, as did leaving the bodies of the cats in places such as a neighbour’s picnic table and in a cat food bag on another neighbour’s porch so she could observe the reactions of those who found them. She told police during initial questioning in January 2023 that “I have a problem with hurting animals, and you need to do something about it” (para.853). Raugust pleaded guilty to nine animal cruelty charges for the torture of nine cats and killing of seven.
In addition to the animal cruelty charges, Raugust also pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to damage property for telling police (after being admitted to hospital) that she planned to burn down her apartment building once she was released. She also admitted to fantasizing about hurting people when she would get angry.
Sentencing was initially delayed due to the call for further mental health testing and a risk assessment in August, where she was deemed a “psychopath and sociopath with bleak hope for rehabilitation” with a strong threat to reoffend. Her own mother submitted a victim impact statement on behalf of the Crown asking the court to detain her daughter, saying “I fear that if she is released she will commit more horrific crimes” (para. 55). Among many other factors, the judge also accepted as aggravating that one cat was pregnant and killed within days after she was arrested and charged for other instances of animal cruelty (para. 277) as well as the acceptance of Lockwood’s Checklist for Factors in the Assessment of Dangerousness and Perpetrators of Animal Cruelty. Consecutive sentences were deemed appropriate.
She was sentenced to 78 months or six and a half years imprisonment, more than double the previous sentencing threshold of three years in R v Geick, and a lifetime animal prohibition order. The judge initially calculated a total of 12 years and one month based on the jail time given for each count, but after taking into account the totality and that Raugust is a youthful offender, the sentence was reduced to 78 months.
R. v. Raugust