"I need someone here right now before I slit his f---ing throat," a triple zero caller said of a housemate accused of bestiality involving a cat.
The accused man, who is in his 20s and has not been named for legal reasons, faced the start of his jury trial on Monday, August 17.
He has pleaded not guilty to one charge of committing an act of bestiality on a male tabby cat named Dutch.
In an opening address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Sam McLaughlin said that on February 14, 2025, the housemate and the cat's owner were watching football and drinking when they left the home to get food.
The two men ended up going to a nearby pub for a few hours until last drinks. While the cat owner was waiting for a Domino's pizza order, the housemate went home.
He is accused of committing the bestiality act, suffering scratches to his hands, in the time it took for the owner to return.
Giving evidence to the ACT Supreme Court jury, the cat's owner described arriving home to see the accused man at the kitchen sink, cleaning his hand which appeared to have been cut.
"I walked in and I was like 'holy crap, what did you do there cut yourself or something?'" the owner said while giving evidence.
"That's when he then told me that Dutch had attacked him."
The owner told the court he walked into the living room to find blood on the ground and walls before locating Dutch in his bedroom "covered in blood and down, quivering".
"When I went to go near him he started hissing like crazy at me ... like I've never seen before," he said.
The owner described Dutch's usual temperament as "playful, outgoing, confident" and "a bit of a rascal".
Jurors heard two triple zero calls made by the cat's owner shortly after returning home on the night in question.
"I just got home and my roommate has f---ing bashed up my cat and there is blood everywhere," the owner said.
"I need someone here right now before I slit his f---ing throat."
An emergency veterinarian who examined Dutch that night gave evidence on Monday that the cat had suffered a traumatised claw as well as injuries to the rectum which were not "natural".
The vet opined the animal had suffered "trauma of some sort" caused by "insertion of an object".
In response to questions by defence barrister Edward Chen, the vet said he "can't think of anything that would cause" the injuries other than penetration.
In his opening address, Mr Chen told jurors the case was about "suspicion versus science".
He said his client denied committing the act and asked the jury to consider if the accused man was "the first to arrive home to discover a heightened cat?"
In body-worn camera footage played to the court, the accused man told police he didn't know why the cat had attacked him, saying "I came in and Dutch the cat ... he did this".
The case before Chief Justice Lucy McCallum continues.
