AN animal killer who ripped the head off a kitten in a drunken rampage has been sent to prison.

Darren Fisher, 41, tore the head off the eight-week-old kitten with his bare hands after a dispute with his neighbour in January.

Fisher was yesterday sentenced to three months' jail, with a magistrate calling him a cruel person.

He pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated animal cruelty, using threatening words, assault, driving offences and several counts of breaches of family violence orders.

Tell your son to come and jump on my car again and I'll rip his head off like the f------ cat

The Bendigo Magistrates' Court heard the dispute was sparked after Fisher saw a neighbour, 12, jumping on his car and demanded $10,000 from the boy's mother, Renee Burns, for damages.

"If you don't pay me the money, watch this," he said.

He then picked up the kitten and twisted its head off before throwing it across the road and dumping its body on the ground.

"Tell your son to come and jump on my car again and I'll rip his head off like the f------ cat," he told Ms Burns.

The court heard there was no evidence Ms Burns's children saw the attack but they later saw the body of the decapitated kitten.

John Whelan, for Fisher, said the attack came after he had drunk almost two bottles of wine in a "moment of drunken madness".

But Magistrate Jennifer Tregent said while Fisher's brain may have been "pickled from" long-term alcohol abuse, his drinking problem was no excuse.

As well as a jail term, Fisher was put on a 12-month community corrections order to start on his release from prison and fined $400.

shannon.deery@news.com.au

Originally published as Kitten killer given prison sentence