Students Sentenced for Cat Killing

ANN ARBOR, Mich--A district court judge last week sentenced five University of Michigan students to perform 200 hours of community service for their part in the torture, burning, and killing of their fraternity cat.

The students also received one-year deferred sentences and were ordered to pay $360 in court costs.

The students had pleaded no contest to the Dec. 6 killing. Police said the five students captured their fraternity house cat, cut off its paws, hung it from a tree, and then set the animal on fire.

A passerby heard screams from the cat and called police.

Members of the fraternity said the students tortured and killed the cat because it had failed to use its litter box.

The fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, subsequently expelled the students--one of whom was the fraternity president. One of the students transfered to a Wisconsin college.

The convictions will be erased from the students' records if they contact their probation officer once every month, pay the fines, and complete their community service--which the judge said "must concern the areas of working with animals and animal husbandry".

The judge, S.J. Elden, said he had received letters from all over the United States concerning the case. Recommended sentences, he said, ranged from capital punishment to public whipping.