MAHOPAC, N.Y., Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A retired waitress has sued a Bronx, N.Y., couple that ran an animal shelter for $2 million for giving her a cat she says viciously attacked her.
Barbara Pinchbeck, 70, said she wanted to adopt a friendly cat, but Jamie and Alan Turell brought her a black cat named Wheezer, which allegedly attacked her and left her with permanent injuries, the New York Daily News reported.
Pinchbeck said the cat attacked her the first night she had it.
"It was snarling, hissing and bearing its fangs," Pinchbeck told the Daily News at her home in Mahopac, N.Y. "It leaped 6 feet in the air and landed on my hand. It bit through my two fingers".
A weeklong hospital stay cost her thousands of dollars, Pinchbeck said. She said the bites were so serious she lost the use of one hand, and nearly had it amputated during her hospital stay.
"I wanted to die it was so bad," she said.
The Turell's attorney, Thomas Gordon, said Pinchbeck will have a difficult time making her case.
"It was a very nice pussycat," Gorton said. "The plaintiff is the only one who's talking, because the cat's not saying a word".
The Turells operated the For the Love of Animals shelter in Westchester at the time. Jamie Turell still operates the shelter; her husband now lives in Florida.
Pitchbeck got a new cat from the shelter, and Wheezer was placed with a new owner, but his exact whereabouts are unknown, the report said.
UPI
