LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — A Florida man could face five years in prison for animal cruelty after a judge denied his “stand your ground” defense in the killing of an iguana.
PJ Nilaja Patterson, 43, was charged with two counts of cruelty to animals in September by Palm Beach Animal Care and Control after surveillance video outside the Lake Worth Beach Water Utilities building showed a man drag the 3-foot iguana by its tail before tormenting the reptile, WPEC reported.
Investigators later identified Patterson as the man in the video, seen kicking and stomping the iguana, the TV station reported.
Patterson’s lawyers argued the iguana was the aggressor in the Sept. 2 confrontation that resulted in his needing 22 staples to close the bite wound to his right arm caused by the “wild beast,” the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Patterson’s encounter with the invasive species is believed to be the first time an individual has pursued a “stand your ground” defense over a deadly wildlife encounter, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutor Alexandra Dorman said that the video is proof, however, that Patterson “savagely beat, tormented, tortured and killed” the iguana and that “at no time was the iguana posing any real threat” to the defendant.
Specifically, Dorman argued that Patterson “was not justified in his actions when he kicked this defenseless animal at least 17 times causing its death,” the Sun-Sentinel reported.
According to the newspaper, Florida law allows for the killing of iguanas when done humanely, including hitting the lizards over the head with a shovel, stabbing them in the brain or even decapitating them as long as death is instantaneous and without suffering.
Veterinarian Dr. Virginia Sayre determined, however, that the iguana in Patterson’s case did suffer immensely, sustaining a lacerated liver, broken pelvis and internal bleeding, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Sayre ruled blunt force trauma as the iguana’s official cause of death, WPEC reported.
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