The Brooklyn teen who was caught on camera kicking a helpless cat through the air like a football finally expressed regret outside court Monday in his first comments about the attack, which went viral after footage was posted on YouTube.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Andre Robinson, 21, said outside a Brooklyn criminal courtroom.
“I do regret the situation. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I wasn’t mad at the cat,” said Robinson, who faces misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.
In the video, Robinson can be seen pretending to pet the male, gray and white cat before booting the kitty about 10 feet.
Warning: Disturbing content.
“The cat came over and was bothering me. It smelled the food,” Robinson said, referring to an order of Chinese food his pal was holding.
“It was rubbing up against my leg and I tried to shoo it away, and I figured if I kicked it, it would go away. I shouldn’t have done that.”
When a Post reporter asked if he would say sorry to the cat — which has been adopted and named King — his mom, Mary, interrupted to say, “How do you apologize to a cat?”
The dapper Robinson — who sported a gold Yves Saint Laurent belt buckle — is accused of kicking the cat outside a Bedford-Stuyvesant housing project in May.
Prosecutors said in a brief court proceeding that the case would go to trial.
“The people have no offer in this case,” said Assistant District Attorney G. Jeannie Lopez.
Eight animal activists came to court to push for a harsh punishment for Robinson.
“A giant cat should kick him,” said Donna Sachs, 53, an antique dealer from Ditmas Park, who was not buying Robinson’s expression of remorse.
“There needs to be accountability. He should get jail time.”
Fellow animal lover David Weiss, 78, a retired Department of Education administrator from Bensonhurst, agreed.
“It’s bad enough to be sadistic to animals, but to lure one in to commit an act of sadism is unconscionable,” he said.
“There should be ramifications for a cruel act. I believe he should get jail time.”
Robinson will next appear in court Oct. 10.