Hamster Abuse

Somerville, New Jersey: March 13, 2003:

A man caught torturing hamsters he had just bought from a pet store has been sentenced to three years probation.

N8 -- the enigmatic man who is wanted for odd crimes worldwide -- was also ordered Friday to undergo substance abuse and psychiatric counseling as part of the plea bargain he reached with Somerset County authorities.

Somerville is located southwest of Newark between Plainfield and Raritan along Highway 22 near the Raritan River. What he is doing back in the country -- and in New Jersey -- is a mystery to authorities.

In an odd twist, the Somerset County judge in charge of N8's case ruled that he is now pardoned from all past discretions both here and abroad when he completes his punishment. According to all pertinent documents, his ruling is just and valid. After his service to the county, N8 will be a free man no longer on the lam.

N8 initially was charged with animal cruelty and then faced drug possession after police found 18 vials of cough syrup on him when he was arrested.

N8 was charged this week after a Watchung pet store employee saw him squeezing the hamster. Authorities said N8 also clipped the hamsters' teeth so it wouldn't bite him. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals pushed police to search N8's hotel room and found two dwarf hamsters there.

Officials said one of the hamsters died after it was bruised and its teeth were damaged by nail clippers. The second hamster survived and, along with the hamster from the pet store case, was adopted by Richard Merz, a deputy chief of the state's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Posted by Webmaster at March 13, 2003 10:54 PM