NICOLA Sturgeon has condemned an "appalling and sickening" attack by West Ham's Kurt Zouma on one of his pet cats.
The English premier league club condemned Zouma's actions and fined him £250,000, which they stated is the maximum fine they are able to hand out. In a horrific video the defender is seen dropping the animal and kicking it like a football across the kitchen floor.
Animal charity the RSPCA on Wednesday removed Zouma's two pet cats from his home and is liaising with Essex Police about the incident.
The First Minister gave her reaction to the video when pressed for her response by Christine Grahame MSP who asked whether laws on animal welfare in Scotland would be sufficient to prosecute such mistreatment if it took place north of the border.
Ms Grahame asked: "What is the First Minister’s response to the actions of Kurt Zouma, the Premier League footballer for West Ham, who tormented one of his cats for fun and posted a video of his actions on social media for the entertainment of others?
"Does she consider that the laws on animal welfare in Scotland are sufficiently robust to deal with such horrific actions should they occur here?"
Ms Sturgeon told Holyrood: "This incident, certainly what I know about it.. was absolutely appalling and sickening.
West Ham footballer Kurt Zouma
"But in terms of the question about Scotland, we have one of the most robust animal welfare frameworks anywhere in the world actually and we continue to strengthen and develop the measures in place to protect animals and enable effective enforcement action.
"The Animal Health and Welfare Act 2006 would provide and does provide sufficient powers to take enforcement action in a case like this and indeed to remove animals away from abusive keepers."
Sportswear giant Adidas cut ties with Zouma, 27, on Wednesday after the video emerged.
The France defender's official personal kit supplier said in a statement: "We have concluded our investigation and can confirm Kurt Zouma is no longer an Adidas-contracted athlete."
Also on Wednesday West Ham sponsor Experience Kissimmee said "due to recent events" it would end its deal with the club.
More than 150,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Zouma to be prosecuted, while one of West Ham's sponsors, Vitality, has suspended its deal with the club.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel