TWO men who sent a dead cat’s head to their landlady after she ordered them to vacate the premises have been sentenced to three and eight months in jail, the Putuo District People’s Court said yesterday.

On December 11 last year, the landlady surnamed Jiang received an express delivery. When she opened it, she was shocked to see a dead cat’s head, still bleeding. Police tracked down the two, surnamed Zhang and He, from Henan Province.

The two had raised 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) and rented two floors in a hotel in 2014 to lease apartments out. They contracted from a sub-lessor surnamed Lei to run their business for eight years.

Last December, they received a notice from the company which owns the property saying its contract with Lei had ended and they had to close down within a week. The company refused to compensate the two.

He was sentenced to eight months and Zhang to three months, with a three-month reprieve.