Woman who stabbed pet cat sentenced to two years in jail
A Sydney woman has been sentenced to two years in jail after she pleaded guilty to stabbing her pet therapy cat and throwing the body out of a second-storey window.
Celina Paige Shead, 20, from Dee Why, admitted in court to stabbing an 11-year-old cat named Ginger 20 times in October 2019 before throwing it from the second-floor window of her family’s apartment.
Officers found a knife with cat fur stuck to it on a kitchen bench, spots of blood on a rug and adoption papers.
Shead, who has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, obtained the cat and another from the RSPCA less than two weeks prior.
Shead’s father reportedly told officers “the cats did not seem to bond with his daughter … this seemed to upset her”.
Shead’s second cat was returned to the RSPCA.
The court heard she was “sinister, smirking, almost laughing” during interrogation.
Police prosecutor Adrian Walsh told the court Shead failed to show any remorse.
“This isn’t an incident of cruelty by way of neglect,” Walsh said.
“This was a small vulnerable animal subjected to deliberate cruelty. It was an abhorrent act of cruelty.”
Magistrate Mark Richardson described her crime as “savage in its cruelty”, sentencing her to two years in jail with a non-parole period of 15 months and a lifetime ban from owning an animal.
Shead was also sentenced to three months in prison for stealing a dog outside the Dee Why Grand shopping centre a month before the cat murder.