Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A Floreat man has been charged with animal cruelty after he allegedly caught and then trapped a pet cat in an esky for eight hours, causing its death.RSPCA WA said they received a cruelty report from a City of Nedlands ranger in March 2023 in relation to a dead cat.Local government rangers called the RSPCA after they found the cat dead in an esky.Credit: RSPCA WAThe man allegedly told the ranger he thought the cat was a feral stray and that he put it in the esky at about 7am that morning, removing the drain hole to allow for airflow. He said he did not give the cat water.He told the ranger he was concerned the cat would scratch him or his children and that it had been aggressive and disturbing his rabbits.But when the ranger scanned the cat, he found a microchip confirming the cat was someone’s pet. When its owners were contacted, however, they surrendered it to the RSPCA.LoadingAn RSPCA WA vet said the cat likely died due to suffering from hypoxia and hypercapnia which wereexacerbated by increased humidity from water vapour.Stress and fear would have increased metabolism, heat and carbon dioxide production, as well as increase oxygen requirements.The man was charged under the Welfare Act with being a person in charge of a cat, the cat was confined in a manner that caused, or was likely to cause, unnecessary harm.
