A dead cat tied to the back of a car was towed 3km through Kaikoura, upsetting children and leading to the pending arrest of a man.
Constable Willy Squires said it was a practical joke that went badly wrong - children cried as they watched the dead black cat bounce
along the road through West End, a shopping precinct.
The driver, Hannah Curtis, 33, drove from Avoca St to West End without knowing the cat was there.
She says she saw the badly damaged body about 6pm on Friday, April 22, after parking but decided to leave it as she was about to start her shift at The Whaler Bar and Restaurant.
When the Herald on Sunday spoke to Curtis, she was upset and appalled by the practical joke and said it had caused a lot of stress. However, Squires said she was "totally unremorseful" when he met her.
"When I spoke to her she said, 'heaps of my mates would do this and think it's funny'.
"I had to remove it, it was horrible. The cat had been dragged for some distance ... with severe injuries. It had drag marks on it and some of its innards were out.
"Small children were standing around crying, it's not a pleasant thing to see."
A male acquaintance of Curtis phoned police and confessed to being the instigator behind the sick joke.
"He said he shot a wild cat when hunting and he said it was a real stupid thing to do but he tied it there to try to freak out this girl," Squires said.
"He never imagined she would drive off."
Police said the man would be charged with offensive behaviour but he was eligible for diversion.
Paw Justice co-founder Craig Dunn said people who were cruel to animals were often capable of hurting humans.
"It's that behaviour pattern; when they overpower an animal that's a real problem," Dunn said. "It's pretty twisted, these people come back to haunt us in society if we don't deal with them now."
