A famous cat is dead and his owners are looking for justice after a melee at a Brooklyn park on April 4.
Chanan Aksornnan, 34, was walking her cat Ponzu in Brooklyn’s McCarren park when a boy around 12 years old set off a chain of events that lead to the cat’s death and a subsequent melee that saw Aksornnan and her boyfriend jumped by the boy’s family.
Some reports say the boy “intentionally pulled on the leash,” while others say he tripped over Ponzu’s lead with such force that the famous feline was launched into the air. A Facebook post to a group called #JusticeForPonzu claims the boy “came from nowhere, dragged the leash using his body.”
What the accounts do agree on is three-year-old Ponzo hit the ground hard and lost all his claws. Aksornnan ran and scooped Ponzu up, but the terrified cat had a heart attack and died in her arms.
Greenpointers, a local Brooklyn blog, spoke with the victim:
“The family not only did not offer any apology nor remorse,” Chanan said. “They immediately began a verbal abuse which escalated into a physical assault. I got punched and kicked by three women.” Meanwhile, Chanan’s boyfriend was punched, his nose and glasses broke, and he required emergency surgery the following day.
The version portrayed by the #JusticeForPonzu Facebooker described the family as even more combative, with one of the boy’s relatives yelling “That’s what you get for walking your —ing cat, b—.”
It’s not clear what happened next — and it looks like police are still trying to sort that out — but a video posted to Reddit shows Aksornnan on the ground, with a much larger woman on top of her and another attacking her from the side while bystanders tried to pry them off the victim.
As People notes:
In the video, a person who appears to be Aksornnan is swarmed by a group of screaming women, who can be heard telling her, “That’s why you got no kids.”
One of the bystanders who tried to help, a 50-year-old man, was punched in the face for his efforts, suffering a cut on his nose as a result as the attacker pushed her way out of the crowd and ran.
In a brief statement, the NYPD said they were looking for “an unknown Hispanic female,” about 5’7″ and 200 pounds.
Several social media posts are portraying the incident as an anti-Asian hate crime and complained that police haven’t made progress for more than two weeks despite witnesses and at least one recording of the assault. The police have remained tight-lipped and haven’t said much besides confirming they’re actively investigating, looking for the attacker and hoping to speak with more witnesses.
Pain In The Bud 
what really is even more heartbreaking, is that the police believe, that she hit the kid. They didn’t want her to call her pets her children since by law they’re property. I really hope they get proper legal help.
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This is totally unacceptable. These people that attacked these innocent people should not have children. And everything doesn’t have to do with race. The child more than likely wasn’t hurt although the poor cat who was on a leash lost it’s life. These people should have been more mature and handled this bad situation with some intelligence. After all they still have their child but this women who loved her cat has lost a member of her family.
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They mocked her for being upset about the cat’s death.
There was nothing in the reports that indicated there was a racial component, and the police haven’t called it a hate crime. Of course it’s possible, but with nothing to support that, I think some sites are being irresponsible by putting it in headlines and reporting it as fact.
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Once again humans do horrible and disgusting things. Wtf is wrong with these women and the child?? The poor cat died because the boy assaulted it and the accompanying women decided the best response is to assault the cat’s owners.
Hopefully these people will be found and held accountable. Please keep us updated, Big Buddy.
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From everything I’ve heard, the family seemed genuinely miffed that Ponzu’s human would complain to them about their kid killing her cat. They just did not care.
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The parents are cat haters and have raised their child up with the same hate. If they are this intolerant of animals, how are they of people? My point is that it ALL starts in the home.
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these disgusting miscreants all belong in jail –the entire disgusting family that attacked the woman and the little psychopath child who killed the cat. Even if he did trip on the leash- not a reason for brazen abuse, he is sicko and not surprising seeng what the adults did.
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How does a cat fall so hard it loses its claws? Not saying it isn’t true, but what a freak accident!
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I wondered that too, and wondered if Ponzu tried to dig his claws into the ground to fight against the force that ultimately propelled him into the air. That part is really not clear and it’s not on video, at least as far as we know. Maybe someone else recorded the incident and will come forward.
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Good grief. Poor poor Ponzu – he certainly did not deserve that. His owners did not deserve to lose their baby in such a horrible way, and certainly not get beaten up by the parent of that horrible kid did. The kid needs to go into juvie for the rest of his childhood.
My cats are my children also. I don’t have human children. Never will. (too old for that by now).
In a strange way, this makes another case for keeping your cat(s) indoors.
Sheesh.
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I grew up knowing a few cat-haters willing to procure sick satisfaction from killing naively-trusting thus sweet-natured cats.
Many of us can appreciate the reciprocally healthy — perhaps even somewhat symbiotic — relationships that can exist between pet cats and their loving and appreciative human hosts, especially physically and/or mentally ill hosts. They have a beneficial influence over humanity that many people still cannot fathom; and this beautiful reality of their positive effect on their human hosts can also be beneficial to the animals themselves.
There are numerous studies revealing the health benefits to humans when in immediate proximity to their cats, such as high blood pressure being alleviated. Whenever I observe stress in the facial expression of my mother, a typical senior, I also observe how that stress drains from her face and is replaced with joyful adoration when her pet cat enters the room: “Hi, sweetheart,” she’ll say. And I know that countless other seniors with pets also experience the emotional benefits of their animals’ presence.
And, of course, all of those qualities makes losing a pet feline so very heartbreaking.
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