What to do with people that murder pets?

It's not illegal to kill an animal you own, so long as it is done humanely. Good luck with proving that.

There was a guy in England who was taking money to shoot retired greyhounds. He was a LOT cheaper than a vet. He was shooting them in the head, efficiently, and it was in fact perfectly humane. It was also at the explicit request of the owners of the animals. They got him on environmental contamination charges for the way he was disposing of the bodies.

Rolfe.
 
I'm not sure what the OP's concern is. The cat was lucky enough to be in the right category: your property, not culturally acceptable to eat. You do realise that is why we have the laws we have, and why the criminal will be punished? The law does not take into account the inherent worth of your cat's consciousness.

To put it another way, given all the animals we, the killer, and the law overlook, how is it rational to punish the killer for killing the cat as a cat?
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
I'm not sure what the OP's concern is. The cat was lucky enough to be in the right category: your property, not culturally acceptable to eat. You do realise that is why we have the laws we have, and why the criminal will be punished? The law does not take into account the inherent worth of your cat's consciousness.

To put it another way, given all the animals we, the killer, and the law overlook, how is it rational to punish the killer for killing the cat as a cat?
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The method. Not his (or her) cat, not his land, and using a firearm in such a matter... and one of which is bad and illegal.

Shooting onto someone else's property is so wrong, jail time is very much in order.
 
Travis said:
As some of you know over the weekend my beloved cat, Simon, was shot and killed by savages unknown. It is currently a matter of investigation by law enforcement.

While I was in the process of burying the single most affectionate cat I ever had the pleasure of knowing someone brought up the idea that we should put humans down that do bad things to animals (yes this cat made many friends and so there was a bit of crowd when I put him into the earth). It was meant to be a statement of emotion in the moment but the more I though about it the more I realized we should take these things more seriously.

I mean imagine the kind of human being that shoots a defenseless house cat that only ever wanted to get more cuddles out of people? Is that a person you really want in our society?

We put down dogs that bite people. I'm thinking people that bring violence the other direction for kicks ought to be removed from society too.
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Were you always for the death penalty?
 
Also. What is it with hearing stories of animal cruelty that bothers us so much? I read about the "hammer maniacs" and they did horrid things. But when reading about them on wiki, it was the part about them crucifying the kitten and stuffing gauz in its mouth to muffle the screams that horrified my most.
 
applecorped said:
Cat's are replaceable
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For a certain definition of "replaceable", sure. Of course, the same could be said for children.

Caper said:
Also. What is it with hearing stories of animal cruelty that bothers us so much? I read about the "hammer maniacs" and they did horrid things. But when reading about them on wiki, it was the part about them crucifying the kitten and stuffing gauz in its mouth to muffle the screams that horrified my most.
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In the case of cute animals it may be at least partly because they cause the same reaction in us as our own offspring do (which is why we consider them "cute" in the first place). So hearing about a kitty getting tortured causes a similar response to hearing about a human baby being tortured.

Additionally we tend to think of the animals as being helpless and innocent. We don't generally view them as being capable of malice or "evil", so they can't be deserving of bad treatment. If a person is murdered you can usually make up some kind of logic on the part of the murderer ("maybe the victim insulted his mother?") It doesn't excuse the behavior, but it at least lets you make some sense of it. With animal cruelty it's hard to find any justification for it beyond "they wanted to make something suffer." And since most of us have empathy, we find that disturbing.
 
Travis said:
I'm sorry but for me I want them in prison for at least ten years.
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If there ever was any doubt Travis is an American, here it is. Any societal problem can be solved with long prison sentences, preferably in as horrible conditions as possible.
 
Akri said:
Additionally we tend to think of the animals as being helpless and innocent. We don't generally view them as being capable of malice or "evil", so they can't be deserving of bad treatment. If a person is murdered you can usually make up some kind of logic on the part of the murderer ("maybe the victim insulted his mother?") It doesn't excuse the behavior, but it at least lets you make some sense of it. With animal cruelty it's hard to find any justification for it beyond "they wanted to make something suffer." And since most of us have empathy, we find that disturbing.
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And, when hearing about the killing of a cat from the OP, most people just assume it was shot by someone for the sake of shooting the cat despite any evidence supporting that theory and instead they rely on the angry description of the animal's supposed owner. I say supposed because the cat was feral when he got it and apparently was free to roam the neighborhood. Maybe the OPer had a valid claim to ownership, but again, we don't know.
 
Ryokan said:
If there ever was any doubt Travis is an American, here it is. Any societal problem can be solved with long prison sentences, preferably in as horrible conditions as possible.
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I've noticed this about Americans too. If Judge Jeffries were alive today he'd win any election hands down in the States, just look at the popularity of that psycho Sherrif in Arizona.
 
:confused:
Ryokan said:
If there ever was any doubt Travis is an American, here it is. Any societal problem can be solved with long prison sentences, preferably in as horrible conditions as possible.
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Did Travis say that? Did Travis say that any societal problem can be solved with a long term prison sentence? I don't think he did.... I think you made that up.
 
MiloMinderbinder said:
And, when hearing about the killing of a cat from the OP, most people just assume it was shot by someone for the sake of shooting the cat despite any evidence supporting that theory and instead they rely on the angry description of the animal's supposed owner. I say supposed because the cat was feral when he got it and apparently was free to roam the neighborhood. Maybe the OPer had a valid claim to ownership, but again, we don't know.
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This is very true. It's possible that the shooter had rabbits or something that the cat was attacking. That still doesn't necessarily make it ok (it certainly wasn't ok for them to shoot it and then leave it alive and suffering) but it's worth taking into consideration.
 
Akri said:
This is very true. It's possible that the shooter had rabbits or something that the cat was attacking. That still doesn't necessarily make it ok (it certainly wasn't ok for them to shoot it and then leave it alive and suffering) but it's worth taking into consideration.
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It wouldn't be unusual for an animal that was shot to run away and then slowly expire a bit later with the shooter not knowing where it went.

I agree that it doesn't make it necessarily OK, but it's also possible that the shooter had an ongoing problem with this particular cat, and that the cat had avoided traps and other more humane methods.

So, again, we don't know the facts of the case and without them it doesn't make sense to conclude why the shooter did what he did.
 
theprestige said:
I suspect that most people who have actually experienced the joy of children would laugh at the idea that a cat is even remotely comparable, emotionally.
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Then those people don't understand what "remotely comparable" means.
 
This thread should serve as proof that there are people out there who really do have the mindset of, "Meh, it's just a cat/dog, who cares?"

I tend to keep such people at arm's length and interact with them for strictly professional purposes.
 
theprestige said:
I suspect that most people who have actually experienced the joy of children would laugh at the idea that a cat is even remotely comparable, emotionally.
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I agree. We love animals and have 2 dogs and a cat. Our older dog was with us long before we had a child and I used to think that our great bond and friendship was somewhat akin to what a relationship between a loving parent and child would be like. I still love the dog as much as ever, but it's not even close to how I feel about my son.

Also, FWIW, I have mourned tremendously in the past over the unexpected loss of a cat, so I know very well what that is like.
 
Even if you set aside the suffering of the animal, the deed is heinous precisely because of the grief caused to the owner - a human being, remember.

Rolfe.
 
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