Pedro González Castilla has been sentenced to serve three months in jail and fined to pay €600 euros in compensation to the owner of a cat he was found guilty of beating to death with a stick in Barcelona last summer. The incident occurred on the night of June 8th 2007 at the junction of the calles Llosa and s'Agaro.

According to the accounts of two eye-witnesses, Castilla grabbed a stick that was being carried by his wife, which he used to beat the animal over the head several times "with the clear intention of causing its death." When the cat's owner, alerted by the noise, arrived on the scene to investigate, the same eye-witnesses described how Castilla tried to hide the fatally injured cat by kicking it under a nearby parked car.

At the trial, which took place on May 5th, Castilla pleaded innocent, claiming that the cat was already injured when he and his wife found it under the car.

The cat died at the scene in the arms of its owner.