Aichi Prefectural Police headquarters is seen in this file photo. (Mainichi/Koji Hyodo)

       NAGOYA -- A 59-year-old man who forced a kitten to swim in a bathtub and uploaded a video of the struggling feline to social media was arrested on Oct. 20 on suspicion of animal abuse, police said.

       Aichi Prefectural Police's Higashi Police Station arrested Masatoshi Hosono, an unemployed resident of Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, on suspicion of violating Japan's animal protection law by abusing a pet, and sent papers on him to prosecutors on the same day.

       While Hosono admitted that he had made the feline swim, he denied the allegation of abuse, saying that he had been conscious about the animal's safety, police said.

       Hosono allegedly abused his cat by forcing it to swim in a bathtub with water deep enough that its feet could not touch the bottom for about 90 seconds, on around June 3, 2020 at a residence in Nagoya's Higashi Ward in central Japan, where he was living at the time.

       According to the police station, the suspect shot a video of the kitten in the tub and uploaded it on social media. The police station had received up to dozens of reports a day about the video since mid-October 2020 and had been investigating the case.

       In the video, the cat looked as if it was dog-paddling while keeping its head above water. Police showed the video to parties including a veterinarian and an administrative agency, and obtained the opinion that Hosono's act fell into the category of psychological abuse, because water in felines' lungs leads to an illnesses and cats in general dislike water.

       Police also judged that Hosono's move to Ibaraki Prefecture in late December constituted an escape.

       (Japanese original by Kenichiro Fuji, Nagoya News Center)

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