Kurt Zouma, a West Ham United defender, appeared in court after pleading guilty to kicking and hitting his pet cat.
Kurt Zouma was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid community service, £8,887 in costs, and a five-year ban on keeping cats after pleading guilty to kicking and hitting his pet.
The 27-year-old West Ham United centre back was hailed at Thames Magistrates Court by a guy dressed as a cat as he arrived to hear the verdict from District Judge Susan Holdham, who branded the conduct as "disgraceful and repulsive."
After being charged with "aiding, abetting, guiding, or procuring Kurt Zouma to commit the act," his brother Yoan Zouma was sentenced to 140 hours in prison. He also admitted to filming the kittens being tortured and pled convicted last week.
Judge Holdham took into account that both Zoumas had no past offences and pled guilty as soon as feasible, with Kurt Zouma receiving a £250,000 fine from West Ham following the incident in February.
"You kicked and slapped either the same animal or both of them — the cat expected on you to care for its needs," she stated directly to Kurt Zouma before delivering the punishment. You didn't care for its requirements on that February date, but instead created unnecessary agony for your own enjoyment."
He pled guilty last week to two charges of causing "unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, by kicking and slapping a cat," in violation of the Animal Welfare Act 2006's section 4 paragraph 1. A third accusation of violating section 9 by failing to "protect the animal from pain, damage, or sickness" was dropped.
A lady who had been emailing Yoan Zouma about setting up a date became concerned after viewing a video that was published to Snapchat, according to the court. The film had such an impact on the woman that she decided to cancel the date.
Kurt was overheard repeating, "I vow I'll kill it, I swear I'll kill it," prosecutor Hazel Stevens told the court. Since the Zouma incident, Ms Stevens claims there has been a "spate of individuals beating cats and sharing it on various social media platforms."
"West Ham United wishes to make clear that we condemn in the greatest terms any sort of animal mistreatment or cruelty," a club spokesman said in a statement. This sort of behaviour is inappropriate and goes against the football club's ideals.
"Within 48 hours of the film being released, we penalised Kurt the greatest amount the club could afford." Every bit of this money has now been donated to a variety of deserving animal care organisations.
"At the first chance, Kurt confessed that what he done was wrong. He has expressed his regret without reservation. We hope that now that the court has made its verdict, everyone will give Kurt the opportunity to learn from his mistakes and move on."
Kurt Zouma was penalised two weeks' salary - the maximum allowed - by West Ham, who gave £250,000 to nine different charities when the footage appeared.
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