ULAN-UDE, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian investigators in East Siberia's Buryatia republic have launched a criminal investigation against a woman who allegedly killed her husband after he threatened her cat.

Investigators said the 56-year-old woman and her husband drank alcohol together, and then started arguing over the cat, which had moved to their livestock farm in the republic's Zakamensky district after its owner from a nearby farm died.

The woman wanted to take care of the cat, which her husband disliked and often tried to scare away. The row over the cat came to a head when the husband tried to kill the pet with a rake.

“In a move to protect the animal, the woman seized the rake from his hands and then snatched a knife from the table in a fit of rage, and stabbed the man three times in the chest,” a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said.

The woman faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of murder. Psychologists are trying to determine whether the woman acted in the heat of passion, which could see the charge changed to manslaughter.