East Harlem Man Charged In Brutal Death Of Seagull

Jeremy Lowengard

PIX11 NEWSROOM

2:02 p.m. EDT, August 31, 2011
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - (PIX11)—
An East Harlem man who was visiting the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York was arrested and charged Wednesday after he brutally kicked a seagull so hard it doctors were forced to euthanize it.

According to authorities, Jeremy Lowengard, 20, was charged with torturing or injuring an animal under New York state's Agriculture and Markets Law, a misdemeanor.

Lowengard reportedly kicked the bird outside a shopping center in the town of Canandaiqua on Tuesday. Witnesses watched in horror as the New York man brutalized the seagull in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack, police said.

It wasn't immediately clear why he attacked the bird.

Lowengard was arraigned Wednesday where he was booked at Ontario County Jail on $1,000 bail.

According to local reports, Lowengard claimed to be a nature lover who loves "being outdoors and working with my hands," as it was written on a website of a student conservation group.