The cats were caged before being tortured and killed (Picture: AsiaWire)

A man who filmed himself killing cats by burning them alive with a blowtorch said it was a form of ‘pest control’.

Makoto Oya shared the videos of the killings for 13 months before he was finally arrested in April this year.

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The 52-year-old, from Saitama City, Japan, has been handed a suspended sentence for the horrific animal torture.

He was found guilty of killing nine cats but is believed to have killed up to 13 using the blowtorch or pouring boiling water on the defenceless animals.


His self-publicised killing spree horrified viewers online who eventually tipped the man off to police.

Oya filmed the torture and posted the clips online (Picture: AsiaWire)

The cats were burned alive or had boiling water poured on them (Picture: AsiaWire)

Makoto Oya has been given a suspended sentence for the animal cruelty (Picture: AsiaWire)

It is understood he travelled 50 miles to the city of Fukaya to carry out the killings, catching stray cats in traps before taking them to a derelict house to carry out the torture.



During the first stages of his trial he argued the killing of cats should not be a crime and that he was simply carrying out ‘pest control’.

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‘The excrement and urine of cats stinks, their nails are sharpened to injure. I do not recognise the extermination of harmful animals to be a violation of the law,’ he told the judge at his trial at Tokyo District Court.

The judge said: ‘The crime is truly cruel, and the influence it had on society is also great.’

But the judge added that Oya later acknowledged his actions were wrong and had donated money to an animal welfare organisation.

Tokyo District Court sentenced Oya to one year and ten months in prison, to be suspended for a period of four years.

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