Sentencing decision following a guilty plea.
Perrault plead guilty to willfully causing unnecessary pain, suffering, or injury to a kitten. Perrault had acquired a kitten for his 10 year-old daughter and performed an at-home neutering by cutting off the kitten’s penis and testicles. The kitten endured pain over a weekend following the procedure. Perrault performed the neutering with scissors in the middle of the night, the loud meow from the kitten woke the daughter and she saw the aftermath. The next day she told her babysitter and mother what she had seen, and the SPCA and police became involved. Both kittens (the male and a female acquired at the same time) were seized. A vet tried to treat the wound but the male kitten did not survive the surgery.
The judge considered the 10 year-old daughter to also be a victim of the crime, as the kitten was intended for her and she witness a large part of the animal cruelty.
After contested positions on sentencing, the judge sentenced Perrault to 3 months conditional sentence, 2 years probation, $2377.48 restitution to the NS SPCA, $400 fine, and a lifetime animal ownership prohibition.