A man in Costa Rica who killed his cat Ochi by throwing him out a 6th-floor window was given a two-year suspended jail term on Monday.
Judge Tatiana Lopez handed the man (31) the maximum possible sentence for animal cruelty, but she spared him doing time. She said the man is no longer allowed to have animals, and if he stays away from animal cruelty in the next five years, he will not go to prison.
In November 2019, the man threw his cat almost 30 meters (100 feet) from the 6th floor of a building in the capital San Jose. But only in August 2020 was an investigation opened after a video of him throwing the cat went viral on social media.
Costa Rica passed its first animal protection law in 2017.