Football player who kicked his cat

[GreenLunchBox]

DISCLAIMER
Just in case this thread pops up in “Active”. This is a contribution to the Black Mumsnetters board which was established to be a safe space for black women and allies to discuss issues of interest black women, from racism to African history, from black hair care to culture-specific issues in relationships. If you feel triggered, nothing here is an attack on you. I would hate for a thread centering black experience to be hijacked so that it ends about centering those who may have hurt feelings because this discussion may be uncomfortable for them. Thank you!

When I read the Kurt Zouma story and watched the video I was disgusted and outraged. But I feel the backlash has gone beyond any heights it would have reached if the perpetrator was not black

He's received racist abuse (of course!), sponsors have rightly dropped him, there is talk of him being prosecuted in his home country of France and his cats have been removed. He has been fined £250,000. Still people are baying for blood. A football pundit says that he will be abused everywhere he goes from now on and it's right because what he did is worse than the racist abuse black players get.

Once I heard that comment I suddenly I stopped caring about the issue of the cat. Black people are seen as worth less than cats, clearly. I'm fed up.

I'm not sure the man who was hitting the horse is actually employed by anyone to be sacked. Not so long ago there was a stables owner Gordon Eliot, who was photogaphed talking on his phone while sitting on a dead horse. Note the horse was dead, so not suffering. He couldn't be sacked as he was self-employed but he was banned from training for six months and he lost a load of business as people withdrew their horses from his stable and went to rivals. And that was over a dead horse that had died of natural causes.
Honestly, aren't there enough cases of appalling cases of racism to call out? Why do you want to go out to bat for this guy?

A lot of comments surrounding this event have shocked me, but none more so than those coming from "pseudo" allies urging us to consider that harming animals might be "normal" in his "culture" (as a mitigation factor)

Agreed. Their ignorance is palpable. MLK had a lot to say about faux liberal allies and what an absolute hindrance and nuisance they are.

Race isnt a factor in terms of what Zouma did. His character is the issue. But UK racism = 'tell me you're racist without saying you're racist' style in terms of the race-baiting surrounding this furore.

So out of the blue some dude can just pluck race out of the air 'oh what Zouma did was worse than racism' and if you say 'hold on, why is his race being brought into this/exactly why and how are you correlating the 2?' - the gaslighting starts

Racists think if they don't say the n word its all good.

Honestly, aren't there enough cases of appalling cases of racism to call out? Why do you want to go out to bat for this guy?

Surely the fight against racism means we call out bias and discrimination every single time

@Delectable

I'm not into football and I feel humans shouldn't breed animals for pets. So I'm shocked that people who love football, see nothing wrong with domestication animals, eat meat with blood oozing out of it, never complain about shooting birds for sport or fox hunting for fun and in fact view it as morally acceptable/decent and aspirational are calling for this guy to loose his job and be imprisoned. They're not asking that he be made to volunteer at a cat shelter, attend training and education about pet welfare etc. They just need him poor and suffering. Their jealousy is palpable!! What has his career got to do with making him love animals better?!

I agree with every word you posted here. Bravo!

This is for another thread but:

I would never live with an animal in my house because I'm germ phobic and think it's gross. But I'm a compassionate person and care about others (including animals)

We've been brought up thinking zoos are fun and it's normal to have pets

I remember going to a zoo in Spain where Orcas were kept. Thought it was disgusting and vowed never to go to another place like that. I've never had any discourse about this ...just realised it myself despite the brainwashing this is a fun thing to do and the animal enjoys it 🙄🤔
My MIL claimed to love animals and was bought a bird in a cage by her husband. When they emigrated to France they sold or gave it away. I thought it was weird for animal lovers to keep a creature that's meant to have the whole sky to roam in a tiny cage. He kept tropical fish and put them in the freezer to kill them when they were no longer convenient.

My animal lover ex kept snakes in cages when we split up. Again, animals used to roaming massive spaces- the jungle FFS. How cruel to keep in a cage

Horse lovers- seems a shit life for the horse to me

Horse racing- do they enjoy being whipped

Etc etc etc

Not sure about this 'animal lovers' narrative

Do you remember the outrage when a woman put a cat in a bin?
Theres a docu-film called "dont fuck with cats" about a huge joint effort with people to solve who posted a video of someone killing a cat.

I think that abuse of domestic animals really does get the internet worked up more than anything else even without adding racism into the mix

I remember.

This is separate to the Zouma thing but I don't think the British are the animal lovers they think they are

A lot of pet ownership is selfish and cruel. Me as someone who doesn't claim to love animals but has compassion for all living things feel I see this more than a lot of 'animal lovers'

"Look at my bunny in a cage. I'm such an animal lover" I just think poor bunny

How many miles do bunnies in the wild cover, and how interesting are their lives compared to captivity?

While I do think the abuse of the cat was appalling and warrants legitimate criticism (and punishment), there’s no escaping the fact that the criticism has been infected by racism. As Michail Antonio said (he’s a striker for the same club as Zouma, and is also a black man), Zouma has had more flack for this than other players do for racism.

Not to mention other things such as Ched Evans playing for Sheffield United while a convicted rapist.

I love watching football but its moral code is fucked up.

What that Zouma saga shows is that the lives of black people matter less than that of animals.

The woman who kicked the horse did not receive this kind of demeaning abuse and extreme cries for social, financial, and physical punishment. Even threats of jail time.

Now I would like to know how those same people react when a black person is racially abused. As for the sponsors who dropped him, I would like to know how they have reacted in the past in relation to the Rabaul abuse of players and white players who have behaved badly.

We must not stand for this nonsense any longer. Speak out on Twitter and other social media. We cannot stay silent and allow this denigration of black people.

Zouma has done an awful thing but the response by predominantly white people show an extreme bias and desire to see him brought to nothing.

Tell me why this white man, Sir Todd has received no such abuse?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10505319/amp/Sir-Mark-Todd-caught-whipping-horse-branch-TEN-times-make-water-obstacle.html

I won't watch the video because I abhorr violence. It's very telling that this story hasn't been on my radar. I follow politics closely and the fact this person is a Sir tells me he should have been on my timeline. But he wasn't

I'm guessing he's apologised and said lessons were learned?

When will black people come together and say ENOUGH of the double standards?

It's not enough for a few of us to rant on Mumsnet. I'm sick of it

Yes it’s really blatant, they’re always looking for a reason to racially abuse black players (just look at the disgraceful Euros backlash) so some actual wrong doing has made their year and they’re going to pretend no one has ever committed a worse crime in football (even though Mason Greenwood was 2 weeks ago…)

There’s calls to ban him from football for life etc, where’s this energy for Marcus Alonso who actually killed a HUMAN drunk driving.

There’s calls to ban him from football for life etc, where’s this energy for Marcus Alonso who actually killed a HUMAN drunk driving.

What

I never even heard of this Alonso thing. Shock!

Alonso plays for Chelsea. Drove into a wall, over the limit & his 22 year old female passenger died.

Albeit I'm not quite sure that people matter as much as animals over here tbh

@TibetanTerrah

Honestly, aren't there enough cases of appalling cases of racism to call out? Why do you want to go out to bat for this guy?

Surely the fight against racism means we call out bias and discrimination every single time

That's a very fair point. This thread has really challenged me. On one hand the racism, apart from being just wrong, in some ways covers up the seriousness of what he's done. So now people like posters on this thread are sort of siding with him, which is totally incomprehensible to me. But on the other hand I don't want my children to see another black man being abused because he's black, but I do want them to see that abhorrent behaviour should have a consequence. All I'm hearing at the moment from David Moyes is that his club is talking to him and explaining what he did wrong; and the RSPCA is giving him some courses on how to treat animals. FFS, he is 27 and he has 3 kids. Surely he doesn't need explanations and courses to know that drop kicking and slapping cats is not the way to treat animals! So I'm quite conflicted and feel split in two. You are totally right that the racism and bias needs to be called out but honestly I don't care if they sack him and he never plays football again. I guess that's where I stand.

And I also object to posters saying criticising him is just jealousy. I don't watch football and knew nothing about him. I'd still not know anything about him if he hadn't decided to abuse his cat. What is there about him to be jealous of? He's disgusting.

@Louisianagumbo, where is your outrage at what Sir Todd did? Why does he have the privilege to be treated so much more kindly than Zouma?

[quote Why2why]@Louisianagumbo, where is your outrage at what Sir Todd did? Why does he have the privilege to be treated so much more kindly than Zouma?[/quote]
I haven't seen what Mark Todd did so until I do, I didn't think it right to comment. If he's drop kicked the horse with a tractor, the equivalence of a cat and a footballers shoe, then I hope he gets dropped by sponsors, fined and prosecuted too. I have no truck with animal cruelty from anyone. So far I think the guy who sat on a dead horse which had died of natural causes has had the harshest treatment. He was disrespectful but not cruel in any way but his life and means of living were severely hit.

But honestly, my post was purely addressing calling racism vs deserved criticism in response to Tibetan's very valid point that all racism needs to be called out.

Anyone who abuses animals is worthless. Animals lives are worth more than the lives of the people who abuse them.

There’s no doubt that racist people, who probably otherwise wouldn’t care less about cats, are joining in the hate. They’re also worthless.

There's no doubt that the racists have been out in force on social media re Zouma and it's been horrible to see.

Away from social media, though, he has demonstrably been treated in a more understanding way by his employers than the white woman (Sarah Moulds) who kicked a horse. He has been fined two weeks wages, which he won't even notice, and was picked to play immediately afterwards; she was immediately suspended from her job as a teacher, and then sacked.

Zouma was casually cruel and his brother, who filmed and presumably shared, laughed. If we're going to highlight double standards, honestly, I would rather ask where the outcry is that Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewol, who died trying to rescue a drowned woman from the Thames, has not been given a posthumous bravery award. You can bet your life that this would have been different were he white British.

What happened to the teacher that attacked her horse recently?

I think we've always had a soft spot for animals as a nation- remember when the dog won Britain's got Talent? I think if the guy had beaten up a person he'd have gotten off more lightly.

@watcherintherye

has the man who was filmed whipping his horses been fined, or sacked from anything? Thought not.

He should be. Absolutely there should be no double standards. However the white female teacher who was filmed hitting and kicking her horse was sacked from her job and rightly so.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10518851/Olympic-champion-Sir-Mark-Todd-SUSPENDED-racing-authorities.html

Suspended? Were there calls for him to be jailed, fined, his children taken away, ostracised from society with the media not letting up until he is brought to nought?

I’m sure Zouma would be okay if he was simply suspended for a match or more.

I’m actually gobsmacked that you think the way Sir Todd is being treated is any where near what Zouma has faced and is facing, even minus the racial abuse.

Are things that bad that people can’t even identify blatant double standards?

@Why2why

Suspended? Were there calls for him to be jailed, fined, his children taken away, ostracised from society with the media not letting up until he is brought to nought?

I’m sure Zouma would be okay if he was simply suspended for a match or more.

Was he filmed laughing by a laughing friend or relation? Did he get a child (who showed no sense of kicking and hitting an animal being wrong) involved? Did a relative of his post it for others to join in the fun?

They both deserve what’s coming to them, but they incidents are not comparable.

It’s Zouma's video that’s so shocking. He chose to abuse the animal (don’t tell me this is the first time he’s done it). His race has nothing to do with what he did.

His ‘punishment' will barely be noticed by him.