Upset that a domestic shorthair cat had entered his flat on three occasions, a taxi driver caught it after a chase.

He then slammed it onto the floor and threw the injured cat into his flat's rubbish chute.

Yesterday, Ow Ah Lon, 59, was jailed for eight weeks after he admitted to causing the white-and-grey cat to suffer serious head and lung injuries, resulting in its death.

Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority prosecutor Yap Teck Chuan said that on March 12 this year, Ow found traces of a cat's paw print in the kitchen toilet of his flat in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4.

But he could not find the cat.

The next day, when he returned home from work at about 9am, he found cat faeces and urine on his mattress. Ow was furious.

On March 14, when he returned home, he heard a cat meowing. He spotted it running out from the television console in his living room before hiding below a metal rack in the kitchen.

Ow caught hold of the cat, but it struggled and scratched him. Ow then threw the cat onto the floor, and it ran into the kitchen toilet and hid beside the toilet bowl.

As the cat tried to run out, Ow caught its hind legs.

"However, the cat turned around and bit the accused's right hand. Out of fear, the accused then threw the cat onto the floor again," said Mr Yap.

Ow then picked up the cat and threw it into the rubbish chute, and left home to buy medicine for his injuries.

On his way home, he stopped by a neighbour's flat and told her that he had "beaten" a cat until it "fainted".

He also told her he had thrown the cat into the rubbish chute.

An autopsy report stated that the cat suffered an external traumatic incident resulting in bleeding within the skull and the lung, which resulted in its death.

Pleading for leniency, Ow, who is divorced, said he has financial difficulties.

District Judge Kan Shuk Weng told Ow that even if the cat had soiled his bed sheet, there was no reason for him to react that way.

Furthermore, the cat was defenceless and there was no reason for him to throw it down the rubbish chute, she said.

Ow could have been fined up to $15,000 and/or jailed for up to 18 months.