Man pays $696 restitution after freeing trapped cat.

Thomas Young, 71, and a self-professed cat lover, could not stand to listen to the howls of a feral cat caught in a trap under his neighbor’s house after two days.  On July 14 and 15 of this year, Young, a former Nielsen Media executive, heard howls of a cat trapped in a raccoon trap under his neighbor’s Westhampton Beach house.  Concerned about the well-being of the animal, Young crawled under the house and let the cat loose.  He decided to save any other cats the same fate and went back under the house to spray cat repellent on the five raccoon traps located there.  Deanne and Hebert Jacobi, the owners of the beach house and raccoon traps has claimed the traps are now useless, and a deal was reached on October 15 at the start of his trial.

Young was charged with two counts of second-degree trespassing, entering the Jacobis’ property uninvited, and two counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief for springing the raccoon traps.  These charges will be dropped on November 15 in Young stays out of trouble until that date.  The Jacobis had hired a licensed trapper to catch the raccoons that were causing damage to their beachfront vacation home.  Because Young felt the need to have mercy on the feral cat, and save any other cats the same fate, he sprayed a cat repellent on the traps, which  in effect, rendered them useless to catch raccoons as well.  Young has agreed to pay $696 in restitution to the Jacobis.