A south London man attacked a stray cat with a broom before shoving the animal 10ft off a balcony in front of horrified onlookers.
Lance Powell’s Sutton neighbours “screamed” at the 63-year-old to stop beating the animal but it was too late to stop the cat being shunted onto the street below.
The cat was left with a fractured skull and severe internal bleeding, and died within hours.
Powell told Croydon Magistrates’ Court the cat had repeatedly fouled on his balcony in Hulverston Close, Sutton.
Powell was on Wednesday jailed for six weeks after being convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to a cat by unreasonably subjecting him to physical trauma.
The case had dragged on for more than a year following the incident on September 15, 2014.
Powell was also ordered to pay £2,998 in costs and banned from keeping animals for the rest of his life.
Lucy Chillery, an inspector for the RSPCA, said: “The cat is thought to have been a stray that was fed by neighbours.
“Powell was angry he kept defecating on his balcony and so, when he came onto his balcony once more, he hit him again and again with a broom.
“The violent attack was witnessed by two neighbours who screamed at him to stop beating the dazed and injured cat, who then fell around 10ft off his balcony and onto the pavement below.”
She added: “The neighbour rushed the puss to a local vet where he was given emergency treatment but, sadly, died overnight.”
Sentencing Powell, the district judge said the cat had “suffered an agonising and lingering death”.
“This was an offence of cruelty of truly horrific proportions,” he told Powell.
“You acted with callous disregard for a living animal.
“The offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified and I would be failing in my public duty if I did not impose one.”
