(JP) Serial cat torturer gets suspended jail sentence

January 8, 2003

Serial cat torturer gets suspended jail sentence

A local government official charged with fatally abusing cats as a way of

relieving work stress has evaded imprisonment even though he was convicted

of his crimes Wednesday.

The Tokyo District Court sentenced Hiroyuki Uehara, 38, an official of the

Kawasaki Municipal Government's Construction Bureau, to six months in jail,

suspended for three years, for violating the animal protection law.

" They are cruel crimes in that the defendant relieved his work stress by

abusing cats. He was a habitual abuser, " Presiding Judge Kazuyuki Okuma

said as he handed down the ruling.

Following the ruling, the municipal government fired Uehara on disciplinary

grounds.

In September this year, Uehara bound a cat with adhesive tape at a park in

Tokyo's Ota-ku, and left the animal in his car for about a week, causing it

to starve, according to the ruling. He was also found guilty of suffocating

another cat to death earlier that month.

However, these appear to be just the tip of the iceberg. The prosecution

had said in its opening statement that Uehara fatally abused a total of 23

cats, including the two for which he was convicted. (Mainichi Shimbun, Dec.

11, 2002)

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