TOKYO (TR) – A Tokyo court on Tuesday handed a suspended prison term to a male tax counselor from Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture for killing stray cats, video footage of which was posted online, reports TV Asahi (Dec. 12).
At the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday, Makoto Oya, 52, was handed a prison of one year and 10 months, suspended for four years, over the killing of nine stray cats with boiling water and a blowtorch during a 13-month period ending in April.
“The crime is truly cruel, and the influence it had on society is also great,” the presiding judge said.
At the time of his arrest in August for violating the Animal Protection Law regarding animal cruelty, Ota was believed to have killed at least 13 cats since January of last year.
Prior to killing the animals, he snared them with a trap near a dilapidated house in Fukaya City, Saitama. Footage of the killings was uploaded to an anonymous video-sharing site. In May, a person seeing one of the videos online tipped off police.
Oya partially denied the allegations against him when speaking with police. “The excrement and urine of cats stinks,” he was quoted. “Their nails are sharpened to injure. I do not recognize the extermination of harmful animals to be a violation of the law.”
However, Oya showed reflection upon his crimes during his trial, which was influential in the ruling, the court said.
“He acknowledged that his actions were wrong,” the judge said, ” and he also donated to an animal welfare organization.”
