HK cat torturers get jail

HK cat torturers get jail

HONG KONG - Two men who tortured a cat, kicking it like a football, were sentenced to 16 months' jail on Friday in Hong Kong's heaviest penalty for animal cruelty.

So Pak Lam, 23, and Yeung Kiu Yue, 26, were found guilty in November after a trial in Kwun Tong Magistrates' Court, reported Hong Kong's The Standard.

The court heard that on Nov 16, 2012, witnesses saw a group of people kicking the cat Miumiu while others looked on and laughed.

The attack left the animal paralysed and bleeding from its mouth. A photo showing blood oozing from the cat's mouth was circulated online.

It was put down the next day because of injuries sustained to its kidneys and lungs, reported the South China Morning Post.

Sentencing of the third member of the group, Kong Ka Man, 18, was deferred, pending her drug rehabilitation report, while the fourth accused, Yip Wai Kit, 23, was acquitted because the CCTV footage did not capture his face.

KICKED LIKE BALL

During the trial, witness Yu Siu Man testified that a group of four or five people were taunting a cat at a stairwell of Tin Chi House in Shun Tin Estate.

Mr Yu said one of the men kicked the cat, which ran away.

He later saw the same group abusing the cat.

"Two of the men kept kicking and passing the cat like a football ball," he said.

Handing down the sentence, deputy magistrate Kennis Tai Chiu Ki said the court attached great importance to the "sickening and infamous case", and although the victim was only a cat, it would not ease the severity of the sentence.

The pair were "cruel, had no compassion, obtaining pleasure through abusing the weak", Judge Tai said.


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