(JP) Prosecutors sharpen claws on notorious cat abuser

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http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20020808p2a00m0fp003001c.html

 

Prosecutors sharpen claws on notorious cat abuser

 

FUKUOKA -- A man who incurred the wrath of the nation

by publishing photos of himself torturing a cat on the

Internet has been arrested and indicted, prosecutors

said.

 

Jun Matsubara, a 27-year-old unemployed man from Kure,

Hiroshima Prefecture, has admitted to the allegations

and has been charged with violating of the Animal

Protection Law.

 

Animal abusers are usually indicted summarily without

detention, but the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors

Office decided to arrest Matsubara because of the

extremely cruel nature of the offense.

 

" He published vicious scenes of killing a cat on the

Internet, and his evil deed has shocked the nation, "

one prosecutor said.

 

On the night of May 6, Matsubara took a cat he picked

up off the street to his apartment in Fukuoka where he

lived. He then cut off its ears and its tail with a

pair of scissors before hanging the poor animal.

 

He later put photos of those brutal scenes on an

" animal hate " page on the Internet. Police and

prosecutors were alerted to Matsubara's cruelties when

a stream of visitors to the Web site contacted them

and demanded that he be severely punished.

 

Fukuoka police officers proceeded to question

Matsubara but only sent papers to prosecutors accusing

him of animal abuse after he denied killing the cat on

May 22. " The cat fled after I poured water over it, "

Matsubara was quoted as telling officers at that time.

 

But a veterinarian assigned by prosecutors later said

he must have killed the cat after carefully examining

the photos he put on the Internet. Matsubara finally

owned up to killing the cat when grilled by

prosecutors.

 

The Animal Protection Law, revised in December 2000,

provides that those who abuse animals should be

sentenced to up to one year in prison or be fined up

to 1 million yen. (Mainichi Shimbun, Aug. 8, 2002)

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