A Sydney man has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after throwing his girlfriend’s cat down a seven-storey garbage chute and failing to seek medical treatment for it.
The 21-year-old Chippendale man, whose name has not been disclosed, was convicted of two separate counts of animal cruelty at Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
The court heard that on Friday April 27, Hibala, a Ragdoll cat, was thrown down the garbage chute of the apartment building the man lived in with his then girlfriend.
It was revealed that the man was jealous of the attention Hibala got from the girlfriend, so he threw the two-year-old feline down the garbage chute while it was in his care.
When Hibala was eventually found, a vet determined he had a fractured tail, cuts exposing the bone in the tail, missing fur and severe inflammation.
The vet said two-thirds of Hibala’s tail was necrotic and had to be removed if he was going to survive.
For that offence, the man was fined $3000 and placed on a two-year community corrections order.
“I don’t know what to say to [the defendant]. I have no idea what to say to a person who places a cat in a garbage chute,” the magistrate said upon sentencing.
“The early guilty plea is the only thing keeping [the defendant] out of jail.”
The man was also found guilty of a previous offence. Between June 9 and 23 last year, Hibala’s owner was overseas.
She asked her boyfriend to take Hibala to the vet when she noticed a cut on his nose in one of the photos he sent her.
The court heard that he refused to take the cat and it wasn’t until friends of the owner collected him, Hibala was found to have a severe wound and fractured bones in his front left paw and injuries to his eye, ear and nose.
It was not revealed how these injuries occurred, but surgery was required to remove dead tissue from around his paw and he was hospitalised for six days.
For refusing to help Hibala, the man was fined an additional $3000 and ordered to complete a three-month intensive corrections order.
He was also banned from purchasing or taking into custody any type of animal for the next ten years.
“Hurting an animal out of pure jealousy, one that belongs to and is loved by your partner no less, and letting it suffer over a prolonged period of time is a shocking display of callousness,” RSPCA NSW Chief Inspector Scott Myers said.
Hibala is now in the care of his owner and they have since moved into a new apartment away from the offender.
