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“Little kitties” can cause quite a bit of stress, said a Calgary senior sentenced in court Tuesday for strangling three animals.

Ottavio Marchesan was charged with two counts of animal cruelty in July 2015 after he was accused of choking three stray cats, killing two of them, and disposing of the bodies in a trash bin.

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Marchesan, who didn’t show a lot of remorse over his act, told the courts Tuesday he understands strangling cats is wrong. The Calgary senior was given several months of house arrest and will be prohibited from owning animals for the rest of his life.

Since the initial incident Marchesan has maintained that he strangled the cats to protect rabbits he had in the backyard of his southeast home — rabbits that were seized from his care in the aftermath.

“My client viewed these cats as a threat to his baby bunnies and also to the song birds,” defence attorney Jim Hittel said.

“His intent in this case was to humanely destroy these animals and he did it in the wrong way, and he understands that.”

My client viewed these cats as a threat to his baby bunnies and also to the song birds

Marchesan said he doesn’t feel guilty but that he does apologize.

“I’m sorry for what I’ve done and the way I’ve done it,” he said, adding he didn’t set out to kill the cats that day but took the opportunity when he found them caught in live traps laid out to capture some escaped rabbits.

Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz said while stray cats may be considered pests by some, these ones were treated in a terrible fashion.

“You have to treat them appropriately,” he said. “You have to treat them in a way that doesn’t cause them undue suffering.”