Man Threw Girlfriend's Cat From 45th Floor After Animal Scratched His Leg

A man threw his girlfriend’s cat from the 45th floor of an apartment to teach the animal a lesson after it scratched his leg, a court in Australia heard Monday. The incident took place in April 2018.

Kaiqi Chen said she got out of the shower and saw her boyfriend Cheng Lu tossing her pet out of the balcony. She then rushed down to find the feline dead. The cat hit the pavement with a "loud bang," the court heard Monday.

“I saw the cat being thrown out. When I saw the cat, the cat was in the air,” she said, adding she screamed when the animal fell and quickly got dressed and rushed down.

“I saw the cat. The cat was dead. In the middle of the pavement,” she said, the Herald Sun reported.

Chen then called her boyfriend, who remained at home.

“Lu Cheng kept saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ on the phone,” she told the court.

Lu, however, said it was an accident.

"I was sitting there in the living room by myself and the cat was underneath the couch. The cat liked to scratch us with his claw and at the time the cat scratched my leg and I was annoyed,” he said.

"I grabbed the cat and put the cat outside but I might have used a bit too much force,” he said, adding, "I only intended to put the cat on to the balcony, not over the balcony."

Daniel Leigh, who was walking on the street when the cat fell near him, said the animal narrowly missed a couple who was walking in front of him. He also added that the cat fell with a loud bang.

"I thought maybe someone set off a firecracker. I didn't see anything fall," he said.

Leigh then informed police, who reached the apartment and found the accused sitting on the floor. Lu was then taken into custody. He pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty and reckless endangerment charges in the same month and was facing a contest hearing Monday.

In a similar incident in the Indian state of Maharashtra in December 2018, a man killed his neighbor’s cat by throwing it from the 16th floor of his apartment building after the animal strayed into his home. The man, fed up with the "nuisance" caused by the animal, first beat the feline with a stick before throwing it out from the passage window. A police complaint was filed by the owner. A witness narrated the incident to the police after which the accused was taken into custody.