Grandma of the year - Josephine E. Bell, 71, charged with killing cat, 4 kittens to punish grandchildren

A 71-year-old downstate Illinois colored woman faces a felony animal cruelty charge after police say she killed a cat and four kittens to punish her grandchildren for not cleaning their rooms -- and her granddaughter found the cat dead in the family's freezer.


Josephine E. Bell, of the southwestern Illinois town of Godfrey, was arrested Monday about 7 p.m. after a Madison County sheriff's deputy responded to an animal cruelty complaint at her home.

A teenage girl who lived at the home told the deputy that she found her cat dead in the family freezer, and when the deputy asked the girl what happened to the cat, Bell interrupted and told the deputy she killed the cat and its four kittens, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

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