Classic case of domestic violence combined with animal violence (kitten)

NEWS AND COMMENT-HOLLYWOOD: This is the latest story in which domestic and animal violence merge and become one. We know - everyone knows - that there is a strong linkage between domestic and animal violence. By "domestic violence" I'm referring to human partners engaged in violence against each other normally the male against the female.

Aghajanian (left) and Johnson. Photo by Nancy Vienneau for The Tennessean.

In this instance, a top Los Angeles chef has been accused by her estranged wife of torturing and killing their two pet cats, one of them a kitten, as she filed for divorce and requested a restraining order over the abuse that he meted out.

FBI Realise the Important Connection Between Animal Abuse and Other Serious Crimes 

I'm concerned about the violence against the cats obviously. Elizabeth Johnson has filed for a domestic violence restraining order against her estranged husband Will Aghajanian. The story has been reported in The Los Angeles Times and The Daily Mail.

Elizabeth Johnson alleges that Aghajanian joked about feeding their kitten to coyotes. She also says that she witnessed Aghajanian shaking their kitten which caused his or her death the next day.

Aghajanian put the dead kitten into the trash can and insisted on keeping it there in the house according to the wife. Comment: to cause her more emotional harm allegedly.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dramatically under-reporting animal cruelty

As to the domestic violence aspects of the story she says that Aghajanian mentally and psychologically abused her. This, she says, kept her from realising what was going on with the animals in the house.

Aghajanian denies it and says that they are "false allegations". He claims that he is the victim and that his estranged wife repeatedly threatened to kill him and actually burned him at least twice with a metal spatula and a spoon which she had placed in a fryer according to the court filings and as reported by Mail Online.

Their restaurant Horses opened in September 2021 and immediately received rave reviews and was an instant celebrity favourite.

Comment: I can think of one outstanding comment namely this. Aghajanian wanted to harm his estranged wife the best way he could because of the animosity between them without physically hitting her. 

He knew that she was connected emotionally to the kitten. I would allege that he decided to harm the kitten to harm her. Perhaps he didn't want to kill the kitten but he shook the kitten so hard that it did kill him or her. It's a simple formula. We see this all the time. 

It is invariably the man who harms or kills cats and kittens to get at their female partner because it is invariably the case that the female partner adopts the kitten or cat and is more connected to the companion animal than the man. 

Like I said, it's an old tried and tested scenario which happens all over the world all the time and occasionally is exposed in court filings and in criminal prosecutions.