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24-Year-Old Man Jailed For A Year For Throwing A 5-Month-Old Kitten Against A Wall
Published by Sadho Ram
Man sentenced to a year in prison for hurling a cat and breaking its leg, then posting the barbaric act on Facebook, shocking France
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A 24-year-old man has been jailed for a year after being filmed throwing a white and ginger kitten at a wall in France
- Earlier this week, Farid Ghilas of Marseille was sentenced to a year in prison for animal cruelty after posting a video to his Facebook profile showing him hurling a kitten against a building.
- Five-month-old Oscar, shown mewling and traumatised in the video, survived the ordeal but was left with a broken leg and is currently receiving treatment.
- Ghilas appeared at a Marseille court on Monday, where he was found guilty of acts of cruelty against a domestic and tame animal, according to news agency Agence-France-Presse.
The video went viral as users lashed out at Ghilas over his heartless act. Ghilas responded to several of the critical comments by insulting their authors.
- By the time Ghilas took the video down, Facebook users had copied and pasted his profile information; posted his name, address, and phone number on the Web; and created Facebook pages calling for his arrest.
- The police ended up taking Ghilas into custody less than 24 hours after the video appeared online.
He appeared in court on Monday. More than 200 animal rights activists gathered outside as Ghilas was convicted of “acts of cruelty against a domestic and tame animal.”
- On Monday, just days later, some 200 animal-rights activists, accompanied by about 20 dogs, gathered outside a Marseille criminal court as the 24-year-old man was sentenced on charges of "acts of cruelty against a domestic and tame animal."
- According to a translated version of a Metro News article on the ruling, Farid Ghilas gave no clear explanation of what drove him to abuse 5-month-old Oscar.
- "I do not know what came over me," he reportedly said several times. "I walked around the neighborhood. Cat came to me. I took it, I swung."
After the video was shown in court, he murmured an apology. The president of the Society for the Protection of Animals in Marseille, a plaintiff in the case, called the apology weak.
- "We must set an example for all those who torment animals," Andy Salviano said, while asking tense and angry protesters to respect the sentence. Other plaintiffs included the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the welfare and protection of animals.
- An online petition calling for prosecution of the man who filmed the Ghilas video had garnered more than 40,500 signatures at the time of this writing.
The five-month-old Oscar is being treated for a stomach injury and a broken foot, but is otherwise expected to make a full recovery
- The rust and white kitty -- rescued by a bystander who witnessed the ordeal -- suffered a fractured leg when he fell to the concrete and is now being cared for by the Marseille SPA, where, "like all kittens, [he's] just waiting to play," the organization reports.
- Oscar's guardian will reportedly be able to recover the pet soon. And if the Internet's past record of kindness to vulnerable animals and the many well wishes posted to the SPA's Facebook page are any indication, he now has supporters the world over.
