Woman who killed Mittens the cat headed to trial on new charge

Jody Anderson has pleaded not guilty to breaking a court-ordered lifetime ban on living with animals

A woman convicted in 2020 of killing a cat in Port aux Basques has pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaching part of her sentence.

Jody Anderson is scheduled to go to trial in provincial court in St. John’s Dec. 6 for violating a court order banning her for life from residing with an animal. Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers arrested Anderson, 40, in Mount Pearl in January.

At a March court appearance, her lawyer, Ellen O’gorman, requested time to gather certain information for her defence. Anderson pleaded not guilty at an appearance before a judge last month.

In October 2021, Anderson and Peter Rossiter, 53, were sentenced to five months in prison followed by two years of probation, and banned from ever owning, having custody of or living in the same home as an animal or bird.

Depending on specific circumstances, offenders serving provincial jail time can be eligible for release after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

Mittens had been placed in Anderson’s care after the cat’s owner, her friend, died. A witness described being at Anderson’s Port-aux-basques apartment one night in 2019 and seeing her and Rossiter go into the bathroom with Mittens, an axe and a garbage bag, When they came out, they were carrying the garbage bag with something in it and left the apartment for 25 minutes. Mittens hasn’t been seen since.