West Ham defender Kurt Zouma has been sentenced to to 180 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty of kicking a cat.
The defender was handed a 12-month community order and also banned from keeping cats for five years, in addition to paying nearly £9,000 in court costs.
In a video that was shared on social media by his brother, the Frenchman kicked and slapped his cat in a video that causing a major social media uproar.
A statement from West Ham on Wednesday confirmed the same;
“West Ham United can confirm that Kurt Zouma has been handed a community service order following an investigation by the RSPCA.
“West Ham United wishes to make clear that we condemn in the strongest terms any form of animal abuse or cruelty. This type of behaviour is unacceptable and is not in line with the values of the football club.
“Within 48 hours of the footage emerging, we fined Kurt the maximum available to the club.
“Every single penny of this money is now with a number of deserving charities, all dedicated to animal welfare.
“Kurt admitted at the earliest opportunity that what he did was wrong. He has apologised without reservation.
“We hope that now the court has reached its decision, every one will allow Kurt the chance to learn from his mistake and move on.”
Zouma was fined two weeks’ salary by the club when the incident happened and was dropped by David Moyes from the starting team when the heat became too much.
