A woman has spoken of her disgust after her CCTV camera captured a man appearing to kick her cat into a wall. Valerie Young, of Albert Terrace in Newport, said she saw what had happened on her tablet before going outside to confront the two men who had passed by.
"I was sat here watching the telly and my son's got a camera outside - I've got my tablet. The cat is old now - she's 17 - so she doesn't go far, she only goes in the dingle next door and she was laying in the sun," Valerie said of the incident that happened at around 2.45pm on Wednesday, October 19.
"I saw the two men on the camera, but I didn't take much notice. Then I saw what they had done. They'd kicked the cat up against the wall, literally kicked it against the wall." One of the two men can be seen walking down the hill, before one man spots the cat, which is sitting outside the house, and adjusting his path before appearing to kick her into the wall.
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Valerie came out of her front door shortly after. intending to confront the men Valerie said her cat's left paw has been hurt following the incident and that she is now having to carry her around. She is also taking her to the vets to assess the injury.
"I walked to the end of the and I just shouted, 'I know what you've done.' I didn't take any notice then, but obviously my son saw the full thing on the camera," Valerie said. She added that the incident has been reported to the police. "It's just dreadful, I don't understand it. I've just been crying all day. I can't see how people could be so cruel to a little cat. I think it's absolutely disgusting. She was just lying in the sun, that's all she was doing."
This isn't the first time Valerie's cat has been hurt. She said: "Years ago when I lived on the riverfront somebody took her eye out, cut all her whiskers and all her claws. So she's not happy when she goes into a vets."
Valerie, who was willing for images and footage of the incident to be shared, said: "It's not very nice, but it makes other people aware of what people are like out there. They might look innocent but there's some nasty people out there."
She added: "I never leave her. I never thought that laying in the sun outside her own front door that that would happen... It's not only a cat, it's a friend."
Gwent Police has passed this information on to the RSPCA to investigate as an alleged act of animal cruelty. A spokesperson for Gwent Police said: "We received a report from the Newport area at around 4.30pm, Wednesday 19 October, that a cat was kicked. Anyone with information, including CCTV or dashcam footage, can call 101 or send us a direct message quoting log reference 2200354630. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 with details."
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