A plasterer has been jailed after hurling a cat down a flight of stairs in a fit of rage during a blazing row with his girlfriend.
Kyle McGailey, 24, used a baseball bat to lure the terrified animal out from under the sofa and held it above the flight of stairs before throwing it down.
His girlfriend at the time said he had threatened to harm the female cat before and had previously shouted ‘I am going to fling the fucking cat out of the window’ and ‘I am going to fucking kill the cat’.
Nala, the cat, did not die but sustained serious injuries – including a fractured tooth gum damage and an eye injury – and when the RSPCA arrived at the scene they said she was ‘floppy’ and ‘subdued’.
Sarah Weadon, prosecuting for the RSPCA, branded McGailey a ‘risk to animals’. She told the court an argument broke out between the defendant and his girlfriend – named only as Miss Diaper – in June last year.
Kyle McGailey, 24, used a baseball bat to lure the distressed animal out from under the sofa and held it above the flight of stairs before throwing it down. McGailey is pictured outside Southampton Magistrates’ Court
Nala, the cat, did not die but sustained serious injuries and when the RSPCA arrived at the scene they said she was ‘floppy’ and ‘subdued’ (pictured: Nala)
McGailey left the bedroom and Miss Diaper could hear Nala, who shares the name of Beyonce’s character in the recent Lion King remake, meowing loudly in the living room.
Ms Weadon told the court: ‘He picked up a baseball bat. He was trying to get the cat out with the bat.’
The distressed cat then urinated under the sofa in their flat in Fair Oak, near Southampton, Hampshire, which angered the plasterer even more and resulted in him grabbing her, the court heard.
He then ‘stormed’ over to the top of the stairs and threw her over the bannister and down the flight of stairs whilst shouting ‘why did I get her for you.’
Ms Weadon said: ‘Nala was emotionless and floppy.
‘[McGailey] tried to clear her up but there was blood on her.’
Police and the RSPCA were called and arrived at the flat and Nala was rushed to a vets.
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Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard Nala sustained a number of injuries, including a fractured tooth, gum damage and skin tears and she had been the victim of ‘physical abuse, fear, distress and pain’.
Nala the cat was left traumatised by the attack against her (pictured is blood on the feline’s paw)
McGailey, who wept as he was sentenced, initially denied throwing Nala down the stairs and said instead he held her over the bannister and impulsively dropped her
Ms Weadon told the court: ‘The RSPCA would say he is a risk to animals.
‘He has not been honest and he hasn’t shown any remorse.’
McGailey, who wept as he was sentenced, initially denied throwing Nala down the stairs and said instead he held her over the bannister and impulsively dropped her.
His lawyer, Will Day, told the court: ‘Instead of carrying it carefully to the stairs, he loses his temper.
‘The cat wasn’t hit by the baseball bat, he used it to move it.’
Mr Day added: ‘[Nala] has recovered and has probably been rehomed.
‘[She had] no injury that would have left any long-term damage to the body.’
District Judge Peter Greenfield jailed McGailey for 20 weeks for causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and gave him a lifetime ban from having any possession or control of an animal saying ‘it is clear the cat could have been killed’.
He added: ‘The cat must have been upset and scared because it was under the sofa. The cat was distressed by the action of the baseball bat.
‘[Nala] must have been terrified of what was going on inside that house.’
