Kurt Zouma's cats taken into RSPCA care over welfare concerns

West Ham defender Kurt Zouma has had his pet cats seized by the RSPCA after video footage showed player slapping and kicking one of them.

Zouma’s actions have been condemned from all quarters and his disgraceful behaviour is the subject of an ongoing enquiry from Surrey Police.

With concerns over their welfare, his cats have now been taken into care by the RSPCA.

A statement read: “We'd like to reassure people that we're investigating and the cats are safe and in our care. We have been dealing with this since before the clip went viral online and we need to follow the proper legal process and not discuss due to UK GDPR laws.”

An RSPCA spokesperson added that the two cats have been taken to a vet to be checked over and will remain in care while an investigation is carried out.

Zouma was controversially included in West Ham’s starting lineup for Wednesday night’s Premier League fixture against Watford.

It had been expected that the player would be dropped, but manager David Moyes drew enormous criticism before kick-off when he told TV cameras that Zouma had remained in the team because he is ‘one of our better players’.

The Scot caused even more of an uproar after the match when he elaborated on his reasoning.

“It's something we're all disappointed with and something we can't understand. He'll learn from it [but] today I had to pick a football team that gave me the best chance of winning the game as manager of West Ham,” Moyes told BBC Match of the Day.

“I know how people feel, but I'm also a football manager here. My feeling was that Kurt has apologised and I understand a lot of people will not just be accepting of an apology. But to me he came out and [apologised] honestly and I had to do my job.”

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