Animal lover pleads guilty to cat death

A Christchurch woman must pay $764.80 for accidentally killing her mother's ginger tom-cat.

The SPCA declined a District Court judge's inquiry about whether she could do community service at its animal shelter instead of paying the fine.

"We don't think it is appropriate for someone charged with an animal welfare offence to work at an animal welfare centre," said the SPCA's Canterbury manager, Geoff Sutton, outside Christchurch District Court.

Natasha Stewart, a 38-year-old mother and beneficiary, pleaded guilty to the charge of ill-treating an animal.

Prosecutor Ben Walker said the SPCA was told the cat had been found hanging from a fence at an Aranui property. By the time officers arrived, the cat had been cut down and delivered to a veterinary clinic nearby.

A cord was found tied tightly around its neck, and part of the same cord was found on the fence. It had died of strangulation and a number of injuries to its neck, head and mouth suggested it had died after a struggle in major distress.

The vet noted that the circumference of the cat's neck was 18cm but the loop in the cord was only 16cm indicating it had been tied too tightly.

Defence counsel Neville Higgison said Stewart had been moving house and tied the cord around her mother's cat's neck as it slept, so that she could move it.

"She accepts that the rope was probably too tight," he said.

The cat woke with a start, took off and tried to jump the fence where the cord got caught with tragic results.

Stewart, who described herself as an animal lover, admitted it was a stupid act.

She asked that any fine be paid to the SPCA, and Judge David Saunders agreed.

He ordered her to pay $334.80 for the vet's expenses, $300 to the SPCA, and court costs of $130.

The SPCA did not seek an order disqualifying Stewart from having pets.

- NZPA