Bird-lover Fined For Killing Neighbor's Cat
The Age
Saturday November 7, 1998
An enraged bird-lover who struck and killed his 11-year-old neighbor's pet cat with a block of wood has been fined $400.
In the Williamstown Magistrates Court yesterday, Peter Adrian Jansen, 63, said he was sorry he lost his temper when he found the cat, called Jordon, on top of his hanging bird-cage.
``I hit it. I hit it a second time and I killed him, I'm sorry to say, but I was mad," he told the court.
However, when interviewed by police just after the attack on 26June, Jansen expressed no remorse.
``Bloody hell," he told a policewoman. ``I hit it over the head and killed it, so what?"
In a witness statement, the dead cat's owner, Andrew Forte, 11, said he was calling his missing pet, shaking a packet of dry food, when he looked over the back fence, spotted the bloodied cat lying on the ground and burst into tears.
Moments earlier, his mother, Ms Lyn Walton had heard a ``miaow", and then a thud, ``like someone being hit".
``I could hear my son calling out, ``Mum, Mum, the man has killed Jordon."
When police were called, they found an unregistered air rifle and 12-gauge shotgun, as well as a silencer in Jansen's garage.
In court yesterday, Jansen, of Roache Drive, Altona Meadows, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated cruelty to an animal, two counts of possessing an unregistered firearm and one count of possessing a prohibited firearm.
In defence, Jansen, who was representing himself, said he had failed to re-register the firearms as required when the new act came into force.
The magistrate, Mr Paul Grant, ordered the forfeiture of the silencer, placed Jansen on a one year good-behavior bond, and fined him $400.
© 1998 The Age