Representative image of a cat.
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An Ohio woman was arrested after a video of her soaked in blood as she killed and ate a cat went viral, a furious judge has now sentenced her to one year of jail time.
According to a report by the New York Post which quoted from a local news outlet, Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione said, "To me, you present quite a danger to our community. This is repulsive to me. I mean, that anyone would do this to an animal. And an animal’s like a child. I don’t know if you understand that or not."
Saying this to the woman who has been identified as Allexis Ferrell, the judge added, "I can’t express the disappointment, shock, disgust that this crime has brought to me. I don’t know what could prompt anyone to want to eat a cat."
Ferrell (27) was arrested and charged on August 16 after neighbours witnessed her mercilessly eating a cat and dialed 911.
According to the publication, when the police arrived, they saw Ferrell on all fours as she was covered in the feline's blood.
The cops handcuffed her and charged her with prohibitions concerning companion animals, cruelty to animals and disorderly conduct.
The case made headlines after now US President-elect Donald Trump had claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating pets.
He said, "A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there."
However, officials have said that Ferrell is neither an immigrant nor is her case linked to Trump's claim.
The publication revealed that Ferrell was born in Ohio and had graduated from the Mckinley High School in Canton in 2015.
When she was arrested, one of the police officers asked, "What did you do? Why did you kill the cat?"
According to the report, during Ferrell's sentencing, the judge said, "You’ve embarrassed this county. You’ve embarrassed this nation. More importantly, you’ve embarrassed yourself."
Stark County Prosecutor Chelsea Small told the NY Post that Ferrell's one-year jail sentence will be tacked onto a separate 18-month sentence for two crimes which she had committed earlier - a theft case in 2019 and a child endangerment case from 2023.
The prosecutor said, "It’s one of the most disturbing cases that I’ve seen as a prosecutor."
Ferrell's defence attorney Stephen Kandel told the local news outlet that she has an issue with drugs and alcohol from her past history and that he has arranged an inpatient treatment for Ferrel after her release.
(With agency inputs)