Kurt Zouma has avoided jail and received a sentence of 180 hours of unpaid work as well as a five year ban from owning cats after pleading guilty to slapping and kicking his pet.
The West Ham defender, dressed in a black suit and white shirt, was met with a man wearing a cat costume as he arrived at Thames Magistrates Court.
Delivering her verdict, district Judge Susan Holdham called the 27-year-old's actions as "disgraceful and reprehensible."
His brother Yoan Zouma was also sentenced to 140 hours for the charge of “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring Kurt Zouma to commit the offence.”
He also pleaded guilty last week to recording the cats being abused, the Mirror reports.
Zouma pleaded guilty to two counts of causing “unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, by kicking and slapping a cat”, in contravention of section 4 subsection 1 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. A third charge of failing to “protect the animal from pain suffering injury or disease” in contravention of section 9 was withdrawn.
Both cats were brought under the care of RSPCA on February 12 and Zouma has since signed over ownership.
The court was told that a woman who had been messaging Yoan Zouma about arranging a date raised concern after seeing a video that was uploaded to Snapchat. The woman was so appalled by the footage that she then cancelled the date.
Prosecutor Hazel Stevens told the court that Kurt could be heard saying: "I swear I'll kill it, I swear I'll kill it." Ms Stevens also said that there has been a "spate of people hitting cats and posting it on various social media sites" since the Zouma incident.
After the video surfaced Kurt Zouma was fined two weeks' wages - the maximum permitted - by West Ham, who donated the sum of £250,000 to nine different charities.
He also lost a sponsorship deal with adidas while the club's partners Kissimmee and Vitality pulled their deals after Zouma continued to play under manager David Moyes.
The defender's legal team have argued that he is no longer being considered for selection by France owing to the incident.
Zouma said he was "deeply sorry" when the footage was circulated in February. “I want to apologise for my actions. There are no excuses for my behaviour, which I sincerely regret.
"I also want to say how deeply sorry I am to anyone who was upset by the video. I would like to assure everyone that our two cats are perfectly fine and healthy."
Yoan Zouma has not played for his club Dagenham and Redbridge since late January but the National League club announced this morning that his contract has been extended.
He was initially suspended by the fifth-tier side before being allowed to return to training after the police investigation closed on March 16.
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