Shocked beachgoers in Palm Beach watch as man repeatedly dunks cat in ocean

Editor's note: This has been an update to this story. The abused cat, Ace, has been found. Here is the follow-up story: A cat was adopted, then abused, Palm Beach Police say. Some call for background checks.

The man wore an orange T-shirt on his head and khaki shorts as he walked along the beach on a breezy Sunday evening, pausing every now and then to wade into the ocean.

Others walking on Palm Beach's Midtown Beach looked on in horror as they realized the man didn't just dip his toes into the waves with each plunge into the Atlantic — instead, he stopped every 60 feet or so to dunk a cat into the water, the frantic feline kicking and panicking.

The Palm Beach Police arrested the 24-year-old West Palm Beach man in August, according to an arrest report.

Police were called to the beach near the intersection of South Ocean Boulevard and Worth Avenue just before 7 p.m. Sunday, where people told an officer a man was repeatedly submerging a cat into the water, the report said.

The officer found the man walking south along the beach and as he walked up, watched as the man gripped the cat by its back and dunked it under the water three times, the report said. The officer noted that he could tell that the cat was "under duress," in pain and suffering from being thrust into the water.

"This world is going to hell, everybody is stupid," the man yelled as the officer approached. As the man screamed, he held the cat by its front legs and squeezed, the officer wrote in the report, adding that the cat was soaking wet with ocean water, had its tail tucked between its legs and was shaking.

The officer got the man to calm down and they walked away from the beach toward the sidewalk, with the man holding the cat by a fistful of its back, the report said.

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The man told the officer that a friend gave him the cat a week ago, but then said the cat came from a local animal rescue shelter. As the officer talked with the man, the man started to become "agitated," yelling at one point that the domestication of cats was a problem for the world, the report said.

When the officer told the man he would be arrested, the man grabbed the cat by its back and neck, shouted, "Does anybody want a cat?" and tossed the feline about 10 feet over a seawall into the vegetation there, according to the report.

When the cat landed, it ran — and was not found.

Three witnesses interviewed by police shared similar stories: They saw the man walking along the beach, holding the cat by its neck and dunking it in the ocean. They all said they were concerned about the cat's life.

The man faces a felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty and was being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $5,000 bond, according to court records.