About a week ago, Kurt Zouma, a 27-year old West Ham defender, was charged with maltreating his pet by physically assaulting the Bengal cat. He was in turn fined £250,000, his cats were taken away and his sponsorship deal with Addidas was withdrawn. 

Yoan, Kurt’s brother, filmed the video and laughed at his brother’s action. It is therefore evident that at the time that the action was being committed, both Kurt and his brother did not think of it as a great offence. 

According to the UK Animal Welfare Act 2006, the principal law relating to animal welfare, owners and keepers have a duty of care to their animals. They must ensure that they are protected from pain, injury, suffering, and disease. The maximum sentence for the violation of this act is five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

While many are calling for more punishment to be meted out to the 27-year-old West Ham player, many are also making comments about how unfair these punishments are to the Black player. Some have called it a case of racism and injustice. They have compared it with other ‘worse’ crimes committed by non-black footballers. 

For instance, on October 15, 2011, Luis Suarez, former Liverpool FC’s striker was said to have used the N-word in the middle of an argument with Patrice Evra, in a game between Liverpool and Manchester United. 

He was found guilty of this crime and was charged with an eight-game ban and a £40k fine. After being found guilty, Suarez’s apology can be summed up as “I’m sorry if you were offended”, which really is not exactly an apology. 

Some football fans have expressed their concerns at how Kurt’s case is being handled; they claim that is a case revealing the hypocrisy of European football administrators and corporate sponsors who have undeniably cancelled the footballer. 

However, though football fans, especially black football fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with the heavy punishment against Kurt, are we right to use racism as a guiding yard to measure against any other crime or unjust action somebody may commit?

Part of the punishment meted out to Kurt Zouma is that two weeks worth of his wages will be redirected to Animal Welfare Charities. Sponsorships are also suspending their partnerships with the club. 

His cats have been taken away by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, (RSPCA), the largest animal welfare charity in the UK.

West Ham has condemned Kurt’s actions but will keep him in the team while an internal investigation goes on. However, an online petition calling for the Metropolitan police to probe into the clip has generated hundreds of thousands of signatures so far. His action has also attracted heavy criticisms, especially from the English media. 

In conclusion, we cannot dismiss Kurt Zouma’s actions against his cats simply because we consider the punishment being meted out to be harsher than ‘usual’. Racism is not a standard we use to measure which crimes are the worst or least. Animal cruelty and racism are both social justice issues, and both should not be excused for the other.