"Hit him with an iron bar and with a cigarette"...A 男 in his 30s who abused a street cat was arrested.

ⓒYonhap News Agency

A man who abused a street cat was caught by police in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

Cheonan Seobuk Police Station said on the 21st that it is investigating A in his 30s on charges of violating the Animal Protection Act and stealing.

A is accused of abusing or stealing street cats from a cat cafeteria in an outdoor parking lot of a building in Seongseong-dong, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan, around midnight on the 4th.

When the cat he had at the mart disappeared, the employees who watched the closed-circuit (CC) TV witnessed A's abuse, such as hitting the cat with an iron stick and supporting his head with a cigarette.

The video also showed the man watching the abused cat as he struggled without walking properly due to a broken leg.

The man even brought a barrel trap and caught another kitten.

Animal protection organizations such as Ray reported the fact and filed a complaint against A to the police.

Police, who analyzed hundreds of CCTVs near the site, arrested A at a nearby home on the 20th.

In a police investigation, A said, "I did it with the intention of catching it and moving it somewhere else because (cats) kept opening trash bags near my house and it didn't look good."

As for the reason for the abuse, he explained, "When I tried to catch (the cat), another cat ran in and interfered with me, so I swung (the weapon) to prevent me from coming," adding, "The missing cat was released at a rest stop on the way to Seoul."

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team