A Polish man accused of throwing a cage containing a pet rat from a fourth floor balcony after an argument with his former partner has been jailed for 81 days.
Perth Sheriff Court heard that Dawid Modrzejewski, 25, of Dunkeld Road, Perth, hurled the cage to the ground after being ordered from his flat by his girlfriend.
It broke and the rat scuttled off and remains on the run.
Depute fiscal Carol Whyte said: “The couple had been in a relationship for seven months and lived together in this flat.
“There was an argument over money and the woman told the accused to leave. He packed two bags and also had a 3ft by 1ft cage containing a pet rat.
“The woman told him to take this cage as well.”
The court heard that Modrezejewski then went out to the fourth floor balcony and threw the cage which landed on a grassy area below.
John McLaughlin, defending, said his client blamed the woman for allegedly taking some of his money.
“My client had these bags, the cage, his fishing rod all his worldly belongings and threw the cage over the balcony,” he said.
“The area below the balcony was enclosed. The woman later sent him a letter saying she was supporting him.”
Modrzejewski admitted that on August 2 at Pomarium Flats, Perth, he engaged in an argument with a woman, shouted and thereafter threw a cage from a fourth floor balcony to the garden below.
His not guilty pleas causing unnecessary suffering to the rat were accepted by the Crown.