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An Edmonton man who protected his elderly cat from a hard-to-kill “Terminator” cat when he bashed the animal with a flashlight, shot it with a BB gun and stomped on its head avoided jail Wednesday.

Vernon Joseph Blandin, 49, was handed a six-month conditional sentence to be served in the community after earlier being convicted of killing an animal without lawful excuse and causing unnecessary pain or injury to an animal.

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Provincial court Judge Fred Day rejected the Crown’s call for a jail sentence of 15 to 20 months after accepting a psychologist’s conclusions that Blandin can be managed in the community and he does not pose a risk of further animal cruelty.

Day called it a “difficult” decision and reiterated what he said at the time of conviction, which is that Blandin is not a “monster” and he was simply trying to protect his own cat and then wanted to end the animal’s suffering after believing he had mortally wounded it.

In his Oct. 2, 2015, reasons for conviction, Day said he “might” have found Blandin not guilty if he had stopped right after repeatedly bashing the cat on the head with a flashlight, after it had come into his inner-city home and attacked his elderly cat.



But he ruled Blandin went over the line during the June 27, 2013, incident when he later used a BB gun to shoot the cat in the head and then dropped it on a cement pad and “stomped” on its head.