Lancashire man who killed cat against wall given jail warning
A man who killed a cat by picking it up by its hind leg and swinging it head first into a wall four times has been warned he could face jail.
Pennine magistrates heard that Jason Metcalfe, 29, flew into a drunken rage when female tabby Bonnie approached him in the street in Earby, Lancashire.
Metcalfe admitted failing to meet the cat's needs by not protecting her from the pain she suffered before death.
He was bailed for sentencing at Burnley Crown Court on 1 April.
The court heard that the recovering alcoholic had relapsed that day, consuming six cans of strong lager.
Magistrates were told that Metcalfe, of Kenilworth Drive, could not remember the incident of 28 September when he was interviewed by the RSPCA the following day.
Chris Wyatt, prosecuting, said the cat suffered various injuries to its head and face and died from severe head injuries.
He said a nine-year-old girl saw Metcalfe holding something grey in his hand and then banging it against a wall at least four times.
"She described the man doing this and she said she knew the man," added Mr Wyatt.
He said a police officer called at Metcalfe's then address in Goodall Close, Earby, and found him drunk, slurring his words and staggering, with bloodstains on his clothing.
"Whether he was drunk or not he was clearly in a rage and took his frustrations out on the cat. It is not a humane way to deal with an animal," said the prosecutor.
Mr Wyatt said the offence carried a maximum penalty of six months in jail and told the court he considered it at the "top end of the scale" for such cruelty cases.
It emerged that Metcalfe carried out the attack a few weeks after he received a suspended jail term for a separate offence.
Magistrates sent the matter for sentencing to Burnley Crown Court because of the breach of the suspended conditions.