A prominent West Ham footballer, 27-year-old, Kurt Zouma has avoided jail time after booting a cat in a disgusting video while yelling “I’ll kill it”
The video was released exclusively by the Sun in February, with a warning that this story contains disturbing events of animal cruelty.
Zouma admitted to two charges under the Animal Welfare act.
The defender admitted to kicking his cat “like a football”.
His brother is the one who filmed the horrific act and has pleaded guilty to one charge under the same act.
Despite the public outcry and disgust, both men have escaped jail time.
Instead, they were both handed a 12 -month community order, with Zouma ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work and his brother 140 hours.
On top of this, they’re both barred from owning a cat for five years and fined approximately $15 thousand dollars each.
However, this is just a small portion for Zouma considering his $156, 000 a week wage.
Zouma continues to play for West Ham despite the horrific attack and is ironically an ambassador for a charity that protects abused big cats.
West Ham responds
Zouma was fined around $300,000 from his club which is equivalent to two weeks of wages. He also vehemently apologised for the attack and insisted his cats were both “perfectly fine and healthy”.
Zouma was later dropped by major sponsors Adidas and Vitality U.K. after the sickening video.
“West Ham United wishes to make clear that we condemn in the strongest terms any form of animal abuse or cruelty. This type of behaviour is unacceptable and is not in line with the values of the football club.
“Within 48 hours of the footage emerging, we fined Kurt the maximum available to the club.
“Every single penny of this money is now with a number of deserving charities, all dedicated to animal welfare.
“Kurt admitted at the earliest opportunity that what he did was wrong. He has apologised without reservation.
“We hope that now the court has reached its decision, everyone will allow Kurt the chance to learn from his mistake and move on.”
west ham statement
Two of Zouma’s cats have reportedly suffered soft tissue trauma and have been handed over to the RSPCA.
The RSPCA is now committed to finding them both loving and safe homes.
“We are pleased there has been swift justice in this awful case and our focus now is matching these beautiful cats to the loving homes they deserve.”
RSPCA chief inspectorate officer Dermot Murphy
A message from our CEO, Chris Burghes, in light of Kurt Zouma's sentencing this morning. pic.twitter.com/5XBoHSsmed
— Blue Cross (@The_Blue_Cross) June 1, 2022
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