Man arrested for killing cat, posting images on Net
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/391081
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 07:03 EST
SAITAMA — Police sent papers to public prosecutors Monday on a 20-year-old man in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, who is suspected of killing a stray cat and posting pictures of the carcass on the Internet, police officials said.
The unemployed man is charged with violating the animal protection law for allegedly killing the cat around April 15 in the bathroom of his apartment in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, where he lived at that time, after capturing the animal in a nearby park.
He is suspected of taking photos of the dead cat using a camera-equipped cell phone and posting two pictures on the Internet on April 20 and 23, sending the images from within Saitama Prefecture.
Saitama police began investigating the case after receiving a report from a 40-year-old self-employed man in Niiza, Saitama Prefecture, who saw the images on the Net.
Police have received requests from about 1,300 people in Japan as well as in the United States and Germany to arrest the perpetrator.
The suspect told police that he killed the cat out of a sense of justice because cats torment squirrels and mice.