Kurt Zouma / 180 hours community service + banned from keeping cats for 5 years

It's not semantics at all. It's a crucial difference. If he were pulling its claws out or similar that would clearly not be semantics but something much worse.
Jeez. How many like this one are out there among us!
 
I saw a photo but don’t think I can watch the video. I’ll get too annoyed.

Zouma is scum
 
From a contract perspective I think the club would be fully justified in firing him on the grounds of gross misconduct. Creating a video that goes viral abusing an animal is certainly grounds for that in most jobs. If they will is another matter. Sadly he'd just get another club.
 
Why the hell would someone do this? And film it? And put it online and with a kid involved??

Its not only animal cruelty, its also child abuse.

Its baffling. I hope the cat and the kid gets a new home tbf
 
I can't know for sure of course. But from what I know about cats and looking at it I'd say it's unlikely it gets injured.

Either you think cats have 9 lives or you cant imagine any injury if a human was kicked by an elephant? Same sort of proportion or scale.
 
Whatever is in the contract. Otherwise I don't care about repercussions from a football standpoint. That would imply I see footballers as special. I don't. They aren't. They just kick balls well.

What I do care about, is people facing repercussions for animal cruelty from a legal standpoint. Punishment and prevention. He shouldn't be allowed to have an animal. He should pay the fine, or go to jail, or whatever one does in the UK when caught doing this.

I hear you on the legal front, totally agree. I don't think speculating about football repercussions implies you see footballers as special though. Why would it imply that?
 
Some posters are so committed to being contrarian they have to weigh in as pro-twatting little fluffy animals around, just to keep up appearances. :lol:
 
This cat was not the friendliest cat going and was terrified of going out. She was a house cat. When I was a kid we got a female from the RSPCA who the child of the previous owners had developed an allergy to so they couldn't keep her. Unfortunately she had also got an injury from being attacked by a dog. Now she was the friendliest most loving cat ever. Loved everybody despite what had happened to her. Lived until she was 18. She used to climb on my mum's knee and knock the newspaper out of her hands to get a cuddle.
They really are amazing creatures. We have a six-year -old calico that we hand raised. She is something else but she only wants a cuddle on her terms. The missus picked her up one day to sit on her lap and got scratched and hissed at for her trouble. I love sardines on toast and I swear that cat can hear a sardine can opening from a mile away. I always share with her - toast as well as long as it's well-buttered and not too brown.
Nice posts. :)

We always take in strays - some that have been in bad ways (cruel owners, a mangled leg, very thin, etc) - and give them a loving home. And they always respond by showing love back - especially our neutered tom cats.

This morning I was asleep with just the top of my head out the covers - I woke up with my cat pawing and stroking the top of my head! :lol:

And it wasn't just because he wanted food or anything. Once he'd got my attention he stayed sat with me for ages. They really are loving pets if you're a loving owner to them.
 
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I'm glad the police have encouraged the RSPCA to take it on. But I wouldn't say suggesting Zouma is prosecuted for animal cruelty crucifying him, I would say it is perfectly fair on the evidence available.

I meant in the sense of the social media mob pile on not actually being penalised for the offence, which yes he should be really. It’s just ive seen someone say his legs should be broken and that all footballers are bell ends. Police are getting lambasted for something they didn’t even say and apparently all french footballers are wrong uns. The actual animal cruelty has already become second fiddle to agendas and the mob mentality already.
 
Just checked his wiki, and apparently this dude is 27 - same age as Lindelof. That seems strange for some reason. I thought he was much younger.
 
There was one episode in Rick & Morty where dogs revolted against humans and kind of enslaved them. This cnut needs the same treatment . But from cats , which would be 10 times more cruel naturally.
 
Are they? All of them?

I'd say the vast majority seem to be decent chaps.

Terrible to generalize I know, but frankly the last few weeks have been an absolute nightmare for the football PR people. The Premier League must be seriously concerned about the image of its product at this point. If I was an executive in charge I would be that is for sure.
 
They really are amazing creatures. We have a six-year -old calico that we hand raised. She is something else but she only wants a cuddle on her terms. The missus picked her up one day to sit on her lap and got scratched and hissed at for her trouble. I love sardines on toast and I swear that cat can hear a sardine can opening from a mile away. I always share with her - toast as well as long as it's well-buttered and not too brown.
One time we had workmen in and we couldn't find her. Then we could hear mewing in mum and dad's bedroom, the workmen had taken a floorboard up to do something with the electrics and she had gone down the hole. Then of course the workman had put the floorboard back. My grandad came round to take the floorboard up to release her.
 
I can't know for sure of course. But from what I know about cats and looking at it I'd say it's unlikely it gets injured.

When I talk about worse things here it's more about my reaction to some reactions in this thread. I think proportionality is important once we start talking potential crimes or justice becomes less meaningful. People who were outraged the police hadn't already arrested him and such just did not reflect the severity if what I saw in the video.

Apparently that's a hard discussion to have without it being assumed that I therefore think nothing wrong happened. Maybe my wording didn't help.
We don’t know what kind of mental health issues a cat could have. Animals suffer from anxiety and stress just like humans. Imagine where you’re a naturally guarded species and yet you still get attacked — you’d be under a lot of stress. There are literally no mitigating factors here. He’s hurting an animal for shits and giggles. It’s just plain sick.
 
I once had a dog (labrador) who had to get his tail amputated because he kept whacking it off table/chair legs when he was wagging it (he was a very happy animal) and got a wound that never healed. It wasn’t fully amputated. Just a few inches off the end. No idea if this is a common problem or not.
Same thing happened to the dam whom I got my lab puppy from. They do like to hit their tail off everything. They’re like beating a drum.
 
Maybe about 15 years too late but I’m never idolising another footballer again - bar few - they’re all scumbags.
 
I hear you on the legal front, totally agree. I don't think speculating about football repercussions implies you see footballers as special though. Why would it imply that?

I should have been more clear then on what football repercussions would imply that. Termination by West Ham would not imply that. Him finding it difficult to play football elsewhere would not imply that.

Him being banned by the FA from playing football would definitely imply that, because it imposes a standard you really don't find in many professions.
 
To think this guy is loaded enough to do constructive activities during his time off but no instead he gets his entertainment from abusing animals. I wonder if west ham will allow him to do any charity functions as animal abusers should not be anywhere near vulnerable human beings
 
It really should. We oversell our own importance and the irrelevance of others.
No we don’t. You don’t compare animals to human beings. “Others” is not a term reserved for animals. This is not even a debate I’m willing to have. Let’s just agree to disagree.
 
How bad is the video? As someone who likes animals and cats in particular I really don't want to watch it.
 
We don’t know what kind of mental health issues a cat could have. Animals suffer from anxiety and stress just like humans. Imagine where you’re a naturally guarded species and yet you still get attacked — you’d be under a lot of stress. There are literally no mitigating factors here. He’s hurting an animal for shits and giggles. It’s just plain sick.

I agree. The cat is likely to have been traumatised especially if this type of thing is a regular occurrence.
 
I should have been more clear then on what football repercussions would imply that. Termination by West Ham would not imply that. Him finding it difficult to play football elsewhere would not imply that.

Him being banned by the FA from playing football would definitely imply that, because it imposes a standard you really don't find in many professions.

Oh okay, then we're in complete agreement. My question was more geared towards speculating on what we think WH should do.
 
How bad is the video? As someone who likes animals and cats in particular I really don't want to watch it.

He volleyed the cat across a room. He then chases the clearly terrified cat around the room. It's caught by one of the kids who holds it up so Zouma can give it hard slap.
 
No we don’t. You don’t compare animals to human beings. “Others” is not a term reserved for animals. This is not even a debate I’m willing to have. Let’s just agree to disagree.
Definitely disagree then. Don't see any reason for putting human beings on a pedestal.
 
He volleyed the cat across a room. He then chases the clearly terrified cat around the room. It's caught by one of the kids who holds it up so Zouma can give it hard slap.
Awful!
 
He volleyed the cat across a room. He then chases the clearly terrified cat around the room. It's caught by one of the kids who holds it up so Zouma can give it hard slap.

This was my first assumption too. But i've just watched it again. I think it's 3 separate occasions (based on clothing in the videos).

I might be wrong, but I think it's multiple occasions all put together in one video. Which is even more fecking deplorable.
 
This was my first assumption too. But i've just watched it again. I think it's 3 separate occasions (based on clothing in the videos).

I might be wrong, but I think it's multiple occasions all put together in one video. Which is even more fecking deplorable.

Holy shit. You could be right.