A British Columbia man was sentenced in early summer to four months in prison for violently beating a kitten to death during a fit of rage that lasted for about 20 minutes.
According to a judgment handed down on June 29, but only revealed on Wednesday by local media, Yiming Zhu, a 22-year-old Chinese national living in Vancouver, violently attacked his kitten around 1:30 a.m. on May 20, 2021 .
According to the testimony of a neighbor, the young man notably grabbed his cat by the tail to swing it several times against a concrete wall. The man also kicked his kitten, in addition to pushing his head into the ground with his foot, while pulling on his tail, is described in the judgment.
“The kitten was bullied for about 20-25 minutes, with breaks. His suffering ceased only because a neighbor reported the assault to the police,” said Judge Harbans Dillons.
When police arrived, the animal was barely alive and had to be euthanized.
Yiming Zhu told police that he bought the kitten the previous month because he felt lonely, but he didn’t know how to take care of it. That evening, his pet scratched and bit him, so the man wanted to “punish” him by hitting him repeatedly.
Judge Dillons noted, as a mitigating factor, that the young man had arrived in Canada with his mother when he was 15 years old. However, she left after he had finished high school, leaving him to live alone in a house belonging to the family, in solitude, which caused him mood swings. Yiming Zhu also expressed remorse for his actions and had no prior criminal record.
The judge therefore decided to impose a sentence of four months in prison, less than the six requested by the Crown.