London, June 1 (AFP\/APP): West Ham defender Kurt Zouma was on Wednesday ordered to carry out 180 hours of community service after he admitted kicking and slapping his pet cat.<\/p>\n
A judge at Thames Magistrates Court in east London also banned the 27-year-old France international from keeping cats for five years.<\/p>\n
Zouma triggered international outrage after a video of him emerged in February volleying the pet across his kitchen before throwing a pair of shoes at it.<\/p>\n
He was seen slapping the Bengal cat’s head and saying: “I’ll swear I’ll kill it.” The clip, shared on Snapchat, featured laughing emojis.<\/p>\n
It prompted West Ham to fine him \u00a3250,000 ($315,000, 294,000 euros). He lost a lucrative sponsorship deal and selection for France.<\/p>\n
The Premier League player arrived at court surrounded by burly minders to face a scrum of waiting media and a person dressed up as a cat.<\/p>\n
As he went inside, the lone demonstrator gave him thumbs down.<\/p>\n
District judge Susan Holdham told Zouma and his younger brother Yoan, who filmed the incident, that their actions were “disgraceful and reprehensible”.<\/p>\n
“You must be aware that others look up to you and many young people aspire to emulate you,” she said but accepted that both expressed “genuine remorse”.<\/p>\n
Kurt Zouma pleaded guilty last month to two counts under the Animal Welfare Act of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.<\/p>\n
As well as the community penalty and ban on keeping cats, he was told to pay court costs of nearly \u00a39,000.<\/p>\n
Yoan Zouma, 24, admitted one count of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring his older brother to commit an offence.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to 140 hours of community service.<\/p>\n
Yoan, a lower-league footballer, sent the video to a woman he was due to go on a date with but she called off the meeting after seeing the footage.
\n“I don’t think hitting a cat like that is OK — don’t bother coming today,” she told him.<\/p>\n
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which brought the prosecution, has called the brothers’ actions “shocking”.<\/p>\n
“We hope this case will serve as a reminder that all animals deserve to be treated with kindness, compassion and respect, and that we will not tolerate cruelty by anybody,” said RSPCA chief inspectorate officer Dermot Murphy.<\/p>\n
West Ham said after the case that it condemned “in the strongest terms any form of animal abuse or cruelty”.<\/p>\n
“This type of behavior is unacceptable and is not in line with the values of the football club,” it added in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Within 48 hours of the footage emerging, we find Kurt the maximum available to the club,” it said. The money had been donated to animal welfare groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London, June 1 (AFP\/APP): West Ham defender Kurt Zouma was on Wednesday ordered to carry out 180 hours of community service after he admitted kicking and slapping his pet cat. A judge at Thames Magistrates Court in east London also banned the 27-year-old France international […]<\/p>\n
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