Defendant Pleads Guilty to Animal Cruelty Charge for Killing Kittens

Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announces that Joshua Taylor, also known as Moriah Taylor, 39, of Hamburg, pleaded guilty this morning before Erie County Court Judge James Bargnesi to one count of Attempted Aggravated Cruelty to Animals (Class A misdemeanor under New York State Agriculture and Markets Law). Taylor entered a guilty plea to the reduced charge in full satisfaction of the indictment.

On the evening of Wednesday, January 17, 2024, Town of Hamburg Police responded to an apartment on the 4500 block of Southwestern Boulevard for a welfare check. Police received a phone call from the legal occupant of the apartment who was unable to get in touch with Taylor, her ex-partner, for several hours, expressing concern for the defendant, two adult cats and three kittens inside of the apartment.

The responding police officers received consent from the caller to conduct the welfare check and search the residence where they found two cats inside of the apartment, but not the defendant or the kittens. A short time later, police found the defendant in a nearby parking lot. The three kittens were found inside of a pillowcase that was buried in the snow on the balcony of the apartment. Police took the kittens to the Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center where a veterinarian found two kittens deceased and one kitten in critical condition inside of a zipped bag, which was inside of the pillowcase.

The two deceased kittens were sent to Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. A necropsy determined that the kittens died from asphyxiation and/or hypothermia. The surviving kitten was suffering from hypothermia and/or asphyxiation upon arrival at the Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center. The kitten recovered and was adopted by the veterinarian.

Today, Taylor was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge. At the request of the People, Judge Bargnesi imposed a securing order that prohibits the defendant from owning, harboring, or having custody or control of any animals for the next three years.

DA Keane commends Lt. Jonathan Cross and Officer Steven Milley of the Town of Hamburg Police Department, Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center, SPCA Serving Erie County and Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine for their work in this investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Megan E. Mahoney of the Animal Cruelty Unit and Anthony Campanella of the Felony Trials Bureau.