Siberian Woman Allegedly Killed Husband Over Pet Cat

A Siberian woman has been accused of murdering her husband over a pet cat.

According to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the unnamed 56-year-old woman was allegedly protecting her cat when she stabbed her husband to death in February.

Local news agency Baikal Daily reports that the couple, who lived in the Zakamensky district in East Siberia's Republic of Buryatia, had been at home drinking to the point of intoxication when the tragic incident occurred, according to The Huffington Post's translation of the Russian-language story.

"Over dinner on the evening of February 10, the couple had been drinking alcohol when the husband's eyes fixed again on the cat. He seized a poker and chased the cat, attempting to hit and injure it," said investigators in a statement, per a HuffPost translation of a report by Russian-language Interfax News.

To protect her cat, the woman allegedly grabbed a knife from the table and stabbed her husband three times in the chest. The man reportedly died at the scene.

Interfax News added that the husband had previously expressed a deep dislike for the cat -- which his wife had taken in earlier this year -- and had often hit the animal.

According to RIA Novosti, the woman is currently under investigation and is scheduled to undergo a psychological examination. She faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of murder.

This is not the first time that a woman has been accused of attacking her husband over a pet cat. In September, Texas resident Audrey Deen Miller was arrested after she allegedly shot her husband in the stomach when he threatened to shoot her cat with a pellet gun.

“The husband was trying to do something to the cat and the wife was just trying to protect her cat,” Assistant Chief Mark Herman of Harris County Precinct 4 told local news outlet KHOU at the time.