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NEIGHBOUR SHOT CAT THAT SAT ON HIS VOLVO
By PA News reporter
The RSPCA today welcomed a decision to order a man to pay nearly £2,000 for
shooting a neighbour's pet cat with an air gun because it was sitting on the
bonnet of his £20,000 Volvo car.
Lorry driver Michael Wootton, 52, of Woodside, Telford, Shropshire, was found
guilty in January of cruelly ill-treating a cat by shooting it after "seeing
red" and taking aim with the weapon.
Sentencing him today, magistrates in Telford imposed a £700 fine, ordered
£1,000 costs as well as £227 in vets' fees and banned him from keeping
animals for 12 months.
Speaking after the verdict, RSPCA Inspector Nayman Dunderdale said: "This
sends a message out that the courts, as well as the RSPCA, won't take it
lightly when someone uses an air rifle or other weapon to injure an animal.
"We continue to press for the Government to carry on looking at gun laws to
try to prevent this type of thing from happening."
John Macmillan, prosecuting, said on February 27 last year, Wootton told his
neighbours he had found an old air rifle and would use it to take potshots at
cats to keep them out of his garden.
On March 1, Wootton's next door neighbours Brian and Alice Turner heard a
sound resembling an air gun and saw a cat jumping over a fence into their
garden.
Mr Turner later found the couple's black tom cat, Beuty (correct), covered in
blood.
A vet later treated the animal for its injuries but it died on March 7.
Martin Rogerson, defending, said in mitigation that Wootton was a man of
previous good character.
Medication his client was taking had side effects, including making him
aggressive, the lawyer added.
During last month's trial, Wootton said he "saw red" after noticing the cat
on the bonnet of his vehicle and shot at it.
He had told police the weapon was a last resort for stopping cats straying on
to his property.
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