Costa Rican cat killer gets suspended jail sentence

Gabriel Saborio, accused of throwing his pet cat from the sixth floor of a building in 2019, arrives at a court room for the trial against him, in San Jose, on October 11, 2022. – A court in Costa Rica sentenced Saborio on October 24, 2022, to two years in prison for killing his cat ‘Ochi.’ Judge Tatiana Lopez imposed on Gabriel Saborío, the sentence of two years in prison, the maximum allowed by the Animal Welfare Law in force in the Central American country since 2017. However, the judge granted him the benefit of conditional execution of the sentence for five years, so he will not go to jail as long as he does not commit a new crime in that time. He was also forbidden to live with animals. (Photo by Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP)

San José, Costa Rica — A man in Costa Rica who killed his pet cat Ochi by hurling it out a 6th-floor window received a two-year suspended jail term on Monday.

Gabriel Saborio, 31, was convicted of animal cruelty in the Central American nation and Judge Tatiana Lopez handed down the maximum possible sentence, although she spared him from doing time.

She said Saborio may no longer have pets and that if he avoids committing animal cruelty in the next five years, he will not go to prison.

In November 2019, Saborio threw his cat almost 30 meters (100 feet) from the sixth floor of a condominium in the capital San Jose.

But it was not until August 2020 that an investigation was opened after video of the event went viral on social media.

Costa Rica passed its first animal protection legislation in 2017.

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