Appeal court in Kalisz upholds suspended sentence for mother over cat abuse video

The appeal ruling

The Regional Court in Kalisz has closed the appeal in a case against a 47-year-old woman convicted over a video showing her daughter abusing a cat. The ruling was issued on Thursday, 29 October 2026, according to Kaliskie Stowarzyszenie Pomocy dla Zwierząt Help Animals, the association that pursued the case. The court kept most of the first-instance judgment in place and changed only one element. The defence had argued the sentence was disproportionately harsh and asked for conditional discontinuation of the proceedings, but the court did not accept those arguments. The ruling is final.

What the first-instance court imposed

In January 2026 the first-instance court sentenced the woman to six months in prison, suspended for three years, with probation supervision. It also banned her from keeping animals for six years and ordered her to pay 4,000 zloty in compensation to Help Animals. The appeal left the suspended term, the probation supervision and the animal ban unchanged. Only the payment was reduced, to 1,000 zloty, with the court taking the defendant's financial situation into account, the association said.

First-instance ruling (January 2026)4,000

Appeal ruling (29 October 2026)1,000

First-instance ruling (January 2026)

4000 zł

Appeal ruling (29 October 2026)

1000 zł

Data from the article text

The video and the cat

The footage was posted online in March 2025 by the girl's mother. It shows a young girl, reported by Super Express as seven years old, throwing the cat into a ball pit and swinging it by its hind legs. The events took place in Ostrów Wielkopolski, according to the same outlet. The cat can be heard meowing loudly while the woman filming laughs, according to TVP Info. After the case was referred to a family court and the municipal social welfare centre (MOPS), the cat was taken from the family and placed in a shelter. Staff there found cut fur and dried glue on its skin, and the animal now lives in a new home. The association had earlier said it would pursue accountability for the person who allowed the treatment.

Reasoning and the animal ban

In the January hearing, judge Dominika Gawłowska described the social harm of the act as high, because the cat, a living and sentient creature, had been treated as a toy. The court said the defendant showed no remorse and that her regret concerned mainly the fact that the recording became public. The court also reminded that conditional discontinuation is possible only when every legal requirement is met, and that parents answer for their children. The association said keeping the six-year ban in place was central to its position.

“For us, the most important thing was one thing: that the convicted person could not own animals for years and expose them to similar suffering.”

The ban and the suspended term were the elements the association emphasised most in its statement, while the reduction in compensation was the only change the appeal court made to the January judgment.