Actually the article doesn't say that.
The boy's mother said the family got rid of their cat
To the teenager, though, the cat is dead to him.
I am a foster home for the Great Lakes Bengal Rescue ( http://www.greatlakesbengalrescue.com ) . To see someone getting rid of a cat because of something like this just irks me no end. To see people defending a male teenager acting in this manner shocks me to no end.
14 is old enough to know better than to act like this. Such behavior would be understandable in a 6 y.o.