The court confirmed the condition and ban on breeding cats for keeping cats in inappropriate conditions

For keeping cats in inappropriate conditions, the Municipal Court of Appeal in Prague confirmed a four-month probationary period for the woman and a ban on keeping cats for five years. He commuted her son’s sentence, dropped the suspended sentence and left him with only a three-year breeding ban. According to the verdict, the animals suffered from stress, lack of veterinary care, poor nutritional status or lack of privacy. Today’s decision is final. Both defendants have previously pleaded not guilty.

The indictment claimed that Barbora Nekolová and Jiří Nekola kept 44 cats in an apartment in Horní Počernice from an unknown time until February 2021. According to the plaintiff, the defendants did not give the animals enough food and water.

According to the file, the apartment was not regularly cleaned and disinfected. When removing the animals, the police also found two dead kittens, seven cats were later euthanized by veterinarians.

Nekolová and her son were initially charged with animal cruelty, but the court eventually punished them for keeping animals in inappropriate conditions. The appeals panel also modified some details in the sentencing verdict, according to it, for example, the couple kept 42 cats at the time, and more precisely defined the time period when they were in the apartment.

Nekolová had previously denied the guilt. In 2022, she stated in court that the cats that the police found in the apartment belonged to her acquaintances. According to her, she asked her if she could take care of the animals, because the stove in the cottage where she lived had to be replaced. Nekolová therefore asked her son for help, who took care of the cats. According to her, she no longer lived in the apartment at the time. She denied the cats were malnourished or sick, which the prosecution claimed.

According to the appeals panel, it is not important who the cats belonged to, according to him, breeding can also be temporary. “It clearly emerged from the expert opinion that all the cats suffered from chemical stress,” stated judge Pavel Benda. According to him, the cats were not even provided with adequate veterinary care.

In an appeal two weeks ago, Nekol’s defense attorney criticized the medical documentation on the cats, which, according to him, was incomplete. He demanded that the condition of the animals be reassessed, for example to assess their body constitution.

Nekolová herself pointed out the constitution of cats and the unexamined documentation. She also disagreed that the cats euthanized by the vets were euthanized as a result of the conditions of her kennel.

In a statement to the circuit court, Nekola stated that he only owned nine cats, the other cats found in the apartment were just known to Nekola. His cats, he claimed, were healthy, vaccinated and housed separately.