Animal welfare groups across Chicago urged people to take caution as they adopt and give away pets after a Wicker Park man was accused of animal cruelty for allegedly adopting, torturing and killing several kittens.

       Thomas Martel, 22, drowned and squeezed two cats to death and fatally mutilated another “with a sharp object,” Chicago police alleged in an arrest report.

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       Officers found another cat dead in a plastic bag inside Martel’s Wicker Park apartment.

       Martel’s girlfriend told officers the cat died after it was microwaved, the arrest report said.