FOG BLOG CANADA NEWS LOG: MAN PLEADS GUILTY, GETS 4 MONTHS IN JAIL FOR DEADLY ASSAULT ON KITTEN!

Vancouver man who pleaded guilty in deadly assault of kitten sentenced to four months

A Vancouver man whose vicious assault of his kitten resulted in the pet having to be put down has been sentenced to four months in jail. A man whose vicious assault of his kitten in the backyard of his Vancouver home resulted in the pet having to be put down has been sentenced to four months in jail.

Yiming Zhu, who was 22 at the time of the May 20, 2021 offence, pleaded guilty to one count of wilfully causing unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to the kitten he had purchased about a month earlier.

In the early morning hours on the day of the offence, a neighbour of Zhu heard the sounds of an animal in distress and saw Zhu in his backyard kicking a kitten and swinging it repeatedly by its tail.

With each swing, Zhu smacked the kitten’s body against concrete. Later he placed the kitten onto the grass in the middle of the yard, put his foot on its head, pressing it to the ground, and pulled up its tail with his right hand before walking away.

The neighbour called police, who arrived to find the kitten alive but barely moving. The kitten was taken to an animal emergency clinic where it was determined to be in critical distress and too severely injured to be treated. It was euthanized.

Court heard that Zhu, who came to Canada from China at the age of 15 to live with his mother with the aim of finishing school and later attending university, was living on his own at the time of the offence and had purchased the kitten because he was feeling isolated and stressed with his studies.

He’d never owned a kitten and found that he was not only allergic to it but that management of his pet had become a burden to him. Zhu admitted to wanting to punish it.

Zhu, who had no prior criminal record, was assessed at the Vancouver Regional Forensic Clinic. While he didn’t have a major mental illness, he was found to have been suffering from an “adjustment disorder” with disturbance of mood and conduct.

In imposing sentence on him, provincial court Judge Harbans Dhillon said that Zhu had inflicted serious injury on a five-pound kitten, an animal wholly dependent on him for care, nurturing and protection.

“In my judgment, the offending by Mr. Zhu consisted of very cruel conduct towards a defenceless animal recently brought into his care,” said the judge. “It included multiple acts of assault, resulting in very severe trauma. The degree of violence is highly concerning.”

In addition to the jail term, Zhu was banned from owning an animal or bird for 25 years.