Two animal cruelty cases, both involving kittens, before the courts today were described as "chilling" by SPCA national chief executive Robyn Kippenberger.
In Pukekohe District Court, Judge Sharon McAuslan jailed David Hamuera Snook for two years and four months for tearing the head off a kitten in front of his former partner and children.
He was also banned from owning or exercising animals for five years and Judge McAusland described the killing as "callous, brutal and cruel".
And a man who admitted feeding five live kittens to his pitbull was remanded for sentence when he appeared in Gisborne District Court.
Te Ahu Aaron Mankelow, 31, pleaded guilty to five charges of wilful cruelty to animals after he recorded himself on a cellphone tipping out five kittens from a box for his dog, and urging his dog to eat them.
Judge Robert Spear warned Mankelow that although community or home detention was a possibility, he could not rule out prison when he came up for sentence next month.
Ms Kippenberger said that the Pukekohe case was "indicative of some of the worst cases of animal cruelty that we see where it also involves cruelty and abuse on a domestic front".
"This is a crime both against the kitten and against the family," she said. "This guy has been sentenced with that in mind.
"Obviously on the cruelty to the animal, we've been lucky to get a year's sentencing.
"We're delighted that the sentence is greater because the added abuse of the family who are losing a loved pet is just as threatening and dreadful as physical violence to that family."
Ms Kippenberger said it was known that those types of violence did co-occur and in some cases violence toward animals would come before violence toward people.
"But we do know that they sit very close together and so it's always chilling to us when we hear of cases like this or of cases like the kittens in Gisborne.
"People who do that are capable of greater violence to their families and to others."
Ms Kippenberger said the SPCA had asked for a custodial sentence in the Gisborne case.
"We believe that that's appropriate given the cold-blooded nature of the killing of five kittens."
