A teenage cat owner has been spared jail despite a magistrate conceding the only account of the feline's brutal death was "peculiar" and "didn't make a lot of sense".
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Three-month-old Earthquake bled out in the bathroom and on the balcony of 19-year-old Alex Lu's Sydney CBD apartment complex before it was wrapped in plastic and dumped next to a basement rubbish bin in April.
Police found a bloodied bathrobe in the bathtub, with two teeth and a chunk of bone encrusted into bloodstains, court documents show.
The full-time student told police he was cleaning diarrhoea from Earthquake in the bathroom sink when the kitten jumped out and fell onto the ground.
On Lu's version of events, the one metre fall caused the cat's jaw to snap in two and blood to come from its mouth.
Earthquake then made its way into the bathtub and laid on the bathrobe for several minutes.
Lu said he dried the cat off and placed him outside for the night - only noticing it had died after clipping its toenails for several minutes the following morning.
"The story goes on and becomes more peculiar," Downing Centre magistrate Erin Kennedy said on Thursday
"It doesn't make a lot of sense, to be honest - that's what is disturbing about it."
Earthquake was a little helpless pet totally reliant on its owner of three weeks, the magistrate said.
"On your account, the cat's jaw has snapped ... and you put the little thing outside to die," she said.
"That's what upsets individuals in the community."
But without another version before her, Lu's sentence could only be based on the cat's fatal injuries, the magistrate said.
A sentencing report was tendered on Lu's behalf, showing he was remorseful, had a very low chance of reoffending, had strong family support in China and was community-minded, the court heard.
Ms Kennedy said some of the incident could be put down to immaturity but she refused a request to spare the teenager a conviction on his animal cruelty charge.
"This is too serious," she said, adding it was "flirting" with a jail term.
Lu will need to complete 150 hours of community service as part of a two-year community corrections order.
When warned he needed to take more responsibility in future, Lu uttered "I promise" in reply.
Australian Associated Press