Police referred a 66-year-old male farmer in Fukuoka Prefecture to prosecutors Monday for allegedly drowning six cats in a river and abandoning their bodies and a raccoon carcass between February and March.
While saying he was annoyed by the bad smell of cat urine and excrement as well as crop damage caused by raccoons, the man told investigators that he had killed about 60 animals, including cats, for two years until around March this year, according to Fukuoka Prefectural Police.
The investigation found that he had purchased a metal cage, put cat food and others in it to lure cats, raccoons and weasels, and sank the cage into the river with trapped animals, according to the police.