The 2002 Japan animal cruelty case (福岡猫虐待事件, Fukuoka neko gyakutai jiken?, "Fukuoka cat cruelty case") was an animal cruelty case involving the torture and death of a cat in Japan. The case was notable as Japanese animal abuse laws had previously been lax and seldom enforced.
On May 6 and May 7, 2002, a 26-year old unemployed Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture man named Jun Matsubara (松原 潤, Matsubara Jun?) captured a kitten in his Fukuoka neighborhood and took it into his home. Matsubara tortured the cat for four hours by cutting off its ear and tail before strangling the cat with a piece of string. Matsubara hung the cat on the string with a CD labelled "I'm a defeatist" before throwing the cat into a river. Matsubara took photographs of the torture and posted them onto 2channel. His username was "Dirlewanger". A placard seen in the final photograph reads in Japanese "Offer to the brothers of Kuromutsu in the world!! Oscar Dill". Kuromutsu generally refers to people that kill dogs and cats; it is used on 2ch to refer to the "I hate pets" subforum.
A poster discovered the pictures and contacted the appropriate authorities, who then proceeded to arrest Matsubara. Matsubara was sentenced on October 21, 2002 to six months imprisonment, but the judge suspended the jail term because his privacy was violated due to the incident.
The cat who died was posthumously named "Kogenta" (こげんた) by a Buddhist priest.
Famous quotes containing the words japan, animal, cruelty and/or case:
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“There are a great many of these accusers, and they have been accusing me now for a great many years, and what is more, they approached you at the most impressionable age, when some of you were children or adolescents; and literally won their case by default, because there was no one to defend me.”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)