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BEAUMONT – A Beaumont man has been sentenced to federal prison for animal cruelty violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs today.

Decorius Mire, 24, pleaded guilty to animal crushing and aiding and abetting and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone.

Animal crushing is defined under federal criminal law as, “actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.”

According to information presented in court, on October 15, 2021, Mire and a co-defendant encountered a live domestic cat in the parking lot of a Beaumont apartment complex. The co-defendant, encouraged by Mire, kicked the cat as if kicking a football field goal, propelling the cat approximately 15 to 20 feet through the air.

Mire filmed the event with his cellular telephone and posted the video on his social media accounts where it was commented on and shared with others.

Mire was indicted by a federal grand jury on September 28 and prosecuted under the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act.

Signed into law in November 2019, the PACT Act bans the intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impalement or other serious harm to “living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians.”

The law also bans “animal crush videos,” meaning any photograph, motion picture film, video or digital recording or electronic image that depicts animal cruelty.

This case was investigated by the Beaumont Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph R. Batte.