Calgary senior pleads guilty to animal cruelty after strangling kittens

A 76-year-old former Italian farmer has admitted to strangling two stray kittens outside his Calgary home because they threatened the rabbits he was raising for stew.

OttavioMarchesan pleaded guilty onTuesdayto two counts of animal cruelty after anEnmax meter reader witnessed himthrowinga kitten in the trash behind his home in July 2015.

"Well, I have lots to say because I don't feel guilty. I'm sorry for what I done, the way I done it," said Marchesan as he addressed the court.

"I been through quite a bit of stress for one year for two little kitties."

• Calgary senior defends strangling 2 cats

Investigating officers also found about two dozen rabbits living in poor conditions in Marchesan's back yardin the 2800 block of14thAvenue in the southeast neighbourhood of Radisson Heights.

"He viewed these cats as a threat to the baby bunnies and also to the song birds ... and basically wanted to eliminate them," said Marchesan's lawyer Jim Hittel.

Hittel and Crown prosecutor MattDalidowiczmade a joint recommendation for a six-month conditional sentence orderincluding four months of house arrest and a lifetime ban on owning animals which was accepted byProvincial Court Judge Peter Barley.

Rabbit stew

The kittens would have suffered for about five to 15seconds before they lost consciousness, according to an agreed statement of facts filed at the guilty plea.

Last year, Marchesan told CBC News that he was disappointed his rabbits were seized by the Calgary Humane Society.

"I work for seven years to raise some bunny. There's a lotof guy that like to have rabbit stew," he said at the time. "Now they're going to be mad too because they cannot have any bunny."

Marchesan, who has no criminal record, was born in Italy in 1939 and grew up on a farm until he moved to Calgary in 1961, according to Hittel.

He built his Calgary home in 1967 where he's lived with his wife since.

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