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AN ANIMAL group has condemned the “lenient” sentence of a man who strangled his own cat to death. Rodney Clifford, 24, choked and killed his cat at his Tolland home on August 15 because it was annoying him and had defecated on his unit walls, according to police facts. The cat was discovered dead in a garbage bin by the same woman who had given Clifford the pet as an eight-week-old kitten just one month earlier. Clifford was handed a seven-month suspended sentence in Wagga Local Court on Monday, charged with committing an act of cruelty upon an animal. But Snowy Mountains Animal Rescue Team (SMART) believe the punishment, which allows Clifford to serve the sentence outside of custody, does not match the gruesome attack. “The laws need to be tougher,” a SMART spokeswoman said. “He should get something worse than that. He should never have an animal again.” SMART deals with animals of neglect almost everyday, from chains so tight they must be bolted off animals’ necks and dogs so dreadlocked they can’t move, to animals found as skin and bone. But this intentional act to kill a pet has prompted SMART to issue a warning to would-be animal owners. “People that abuse an animal should not be allowed them,” the spokeswoman said. “(Pets) are a responsibility. You’ve got to look after them and love them.” Clifford will attend anger management counselling as per the conditions of his bond.

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