A man accused of torturing a cat to death and then posting video of the occult ritual online has fled his Bronx home to escape the wrath of animal lovers, his attorney told the Daily News.
David Mosley, 27, was arrested after posting video and disturbing images on Oct. 22 on his now-deleted Instagram account, @churchofububal, depicting a white-and-gray tabby cat lying in a circle drawn on a wooden floor. The cat had blood pouring from its mouth and was surrounded by arcane symbols scrawled on the walls.
“You should have heard the bih [sic] squeal,” was written beneath the image, prosecutors say.
Mosley’s attorney said his client posted the video to social media looking for attention, but the pushback he got from animal lovers was more than he bargained for.
“I don’t get this kind of reaction to the horrible sex cases or the homicides or any other violent crime I’ve handled,” said attorney Paul London. “He doesn’t want this kind of attention. It was not on his bingo card that a reaction like this would follow.”
London said the “harassment” directed at his client was so severe Mosley moved out of his Bronx apartment.
“He had to relocate,” said London. “Unfortunately, people are still very angry about this case. … It’s not often people spend their own money to create wanted posters of my client, and to me that’s as disturbing as someone doing this horrific act. You’re trying to take justice into your own hands and you’re trying to alienate a person and attack him.”
Even so, a police spokesman said cops have received no reports from Mosley or his lawyer alleging harassment.
In a now-deleted, but still archived, Oct. 27 YouTube livestream, Mosley reacted to the uproar over the footage he had posted five days earlier of the cat killing.
He ranted nonsensically for an hour about being doxed by stalkers, comparing himself to “Spider-Man,” boasting about saving children and musing about race relations, religious devotion and Mr. Beast. He implied that the cat’s death was staged.
“He said, ‘Is it true, you were sacrificing the cats?’ You just read s–t on the internet,” Mosley mused, as he shuffled and fanned a deck of playing cards. “You can clearly see that was arranged. … If I did unalive that cat, where is the rest of the matter at, where is the rest of the s–t at, you feel me?… Do your homework on me and you can see, n—ers. I got mad pictures with dead cats. that just blew up.”
“Just a little necromancy,” added the wannabe rapper. “I got dead rats. … I got albino f—–g ladybugs.”
Mosley was arrested three days following that livestream after authorities searched his home.
Animal lovers have shown up in force at four of Mosley’s court appearances since his arrest, including his Tuesday arraignment on a grand jury indictment, where the accused cat killer outraged advocates by pleading not guilty to charges of aggravated cruelty to animals and torturing and injuring animals.
The animal advocates have posthumously named the cat Mosley is accused of killing Mercy.
“I felt like I got kicked in the teeth. I felt like literally throwing up,” 62-year-old Rachel Ejsmont, a PETA team action leader, told The News after Tuesday’s court appearance. “It’s so disappointing and I don’t cry a lot, but it brought me to tears. [Prosecutors] have the evidence, they have the video. What is there to plead not guilty about?”
“We’re going to continue calling the DA, writing letters, petitions and not losing momentum,” he added. “We have to stay on top of if and not give up. Mercy would not want us to give up on her.”
Joining the animal activists outside Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday was Guardian Angel founder and 2025 Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa.
“We just have to be vigilant and continue to apply pressure,” Sliwa said. “There’s a lot of animal abuse cases that slip through the cracks.”
With John Annese
