Animal Control? How About People Control? August 15, 2006 Lauren This is fucking disgusting. Fucking infuriating. UPDATE: My apologies. This article definitely deserves a warning label. Definitely, definitely not for the weak of heart.
Oh god. I’m going to be sick. “This is probably one of the worst cases of animal cruelty I’ve seen in my 26 years on the job. . . . It’s very sad, because there is no reason to do this to a helpless kitten. If this man could do this to a kitten, he could do this to a person. He is a very sick man.” Loubert said the man who attacked the kittens will be charged with animal cruelty today. What are the penalties for animal cruelty? What is the difference between frying a kitten and, say, frying a baby?
From what I’ve seen of Animal Precinct, this could be a felony, given how many kittens there were. The sad thing is, this is someone who is mentally ill. What the usual case is for animal cruelty is someone who has all their faculties and still starves an animal, or beats it, or leaves it on a rooftop with no water, or throws it off a balcony to get back at a spouse. What’s so satisfying about watching Animal Precinct (as opposed to the other Animal Cops shows) is that the ASPCA officers are peace officers and have full police powers to make arrests on probable cause — they don’t need to get warrants issued in all cases, or get the cops or sheriff to come out.
Zuzu- what you said. This behavior sounds like that of someone who is insane, in a needs-to-be-on-heavy-antipsychotic-drugs-and/or-institutionalized kinda way.
This is heartbreaking. And right on the tail (no pun intended) of hearing about this sad, sad story on the evening news.
Obviously the guy was mentally ill and seemed to be needing a psychiatrist’s checkup. Good idea not to pick up strangers at the bus stop and take them home to share a bite. No telling who gets the bite.
The sad thing is, this is someone who is mentally ill. What the usual case is for animal cruelty is someone who has all their faculties and still starves an animal, or beats it, or leaves it on a rooftop with no water, or throws it off a balcony to get back at a spouse. Yeah, that’s sort of what depressed me, too. There doesn’t appear a real motive here, unless the article is leaving something out (always a possibility) – usually, severe animal abuse is the product of someone sane with motives that involve other people, or severe personal frustration. There has to be backstory here… The good thing is that is sounds like these kittens all will be OK. Most of the really twisted cases of animal abuse I’ve seen or heard about, well, didn’t end so well. Except a very few of them, where the saddest part was that I was glad the animal didn’t have to live through the ordeal that the sick bastard had planned. I’m going to snuggle my kitty for a bit now… (She had two plates full of chicken about two hours ago, and is sleeping it off, but I think it is OK to disturb her for belly-rubs.)
Screw lighter sentences due to mental illness, we should throw him in a giant meat grinder. I never understand why executing mentally ill is wrong if they did stuff like this.
After 20 years in the animal-welfare field, here’s the other thing that makes me sad: When these kittens are well enough to be placed into homes, they’ll have THOUSANDS of people vying to adopt them….while most of the rest of the animals in the shelters around them remain ignored. Lots of people are thrilled to take in a homeless animal if there’s a white-knight quality attached to the experience; most are less moved by pets who need a home every bit as badly but don’t come with a backstory. In this as in so many things, we love extremes—outrageous cruelty cases like this one are a lot “sexier” than the boring old tale of animal overpopulation. That’s not to say that these kitties don’t deserve a very, very happy ending! Hope each one of them will land in a home with sunny windowsills, salmon for dinner, and only the mildest consequences for scratching the bejesus out of the living-room sofa.
Lizard: they’re going to be all scabby and smelling of grease – if they didn’t have the ‘white knight’ factor going for them they’re screwed! In other horrible-humans news: how about sentencing an entire family to death to avoid some mildly-painful rabies shots?
Oh PD, I got so pissed off reading about the euthanized meerkats. I get so, so, so mad thinking about it that I just can’t talk about it. Lizard, I’m a rescuer and I know exactly what you are saying.
If they had killed the meerkats and tested them as positive for rabies, she would have had to have the damned shots anyway. The BEST CASE situation for them apparently was that they just needlessly killed 5 small adorable animals because they didn’t control their child from reaching into an animal enclosure.
If I may cross-pollinate from another thread, THOSE are bad parents. If that were a normally developing 9 year old, she knew damned well better than to do that, and it would have taken several minutes of complete inattention from her parents for her to get there. If it were my kid who had managed to pull that off (yes, I do have kids), I certainly would decide that having the rabies shots would be a good way to learn the consequences of dumbshit actions and convince the child never to do that again.
Oh, God, I’m going to go snuggle my kitties now. All of mine are rescues, and sterilized. And I feed their leftover food to the strays outside my door. Goddamn.
What are the penalties for animal cruelty? I have no idea. But I do know it’s a felony, at least here in Rhode Island, and it can get you jail time. Although something tells me this guy will be going directly to the nuthouse instead of jail. That is one sick motherfucker. Seriously.
That is just absolutely digusting. There is no rhyme or reason for such a horrible act. Hopefully this person will get persecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
I hadn’t heard anyone else mention this, but I feel terrible for the man who lived with the mother cat and her kittens. One presumes he didn’t know the guy he invited over for dinner was going to do this, and who else but him could have known to call the cops? Did he surrender the kittens to animal control so they could receive veterinary care (I’m thinking the care for all those kittens would be prohibitively expensive)? What became of the mother cat? All I could think reading that story was that I invite a lot of people over for dinner, what would I do if they hurt my ratties? (Heh, or my child come to think of it, but they’d literally have to go through me to do that at the moment.)
Thank you for posting the warning. Reading that article brought me to tears. The man who did it is obviously mentally unstable — the “removing his clothes” part clued me into that — but still, he needs to be removed from society. We don’t execute the provably mentally unstable because they are not, supposedly, cognitively aware enough to really be responsible for their actions. I think this may in fact depend on the person, but I am not a lawyer nor a mental health care professional. I’m just someone who can’t imagine anyone who *isn’t* completely cracked doing something like that to an animal, baby or defenseless or otherwise. Re: the meercats Yeah, I WOKE UP to that story on the clock radio last week. Wrecked my whole day — literally couldn’t get it out of my head. My parents would have insisted that I go through the rabies shots, that the meercats be isolated but not destroyed, AND I’d have had an incredibly long lecture to sit through. Then again, my parents always stressed to me that wild animals are NOT the same as tame animals, no matter how friendly they appear. (This, while feeding the mama squirrel peanut butter bread from the back steps every morning. She would take it from my Ma’s hand. She would hang on the DOOR if we didn’t see her right away. So, yeah, not “tame” at all. *grin* Of course, we never tried to pet her or pick her up, and that would be the difference.) So tell me again why five creatures who were only reacting defensively in the way their natures told them to were killed? Just because some little girl thought they were cute and fuzzy and wanted to pet them, AND hadn’t ever been told to leave the wild animals alone? Or given boundaries beyond which she needed to ask permission to go? Tell me again why humans going extinct would be such a bad thing?
I’m so glad that I read the title first. I can’t read shit like that without wanting to go out and open season on some humans. (Granted, I don’t have the means, so it’d be a very short season, but you know, the urge for vengeance is definitely present.)
I went to college with a fellow named Carmen. Carmen, a retired real estate agent who was basically living common law with a young animal shelter worker, had some seriously painful stories to tell. They had 11-13 cats living with them. One had three legs (crossbow injury). Although these things are not equivalent, animal cruelty hits me in the same place, emotionally, that adults battering children does. It is just wrong wrong wrong to abuse someone or something that relies on you for protection and care. Just plain wrong.
Medicine Man, I agree. I volunteer with a rescue group that socializes abandoned and abused animals so that they can be adopted–and the reason the abuse is so tragic is because the animals are so helpless. Not only do they rely on us for their care and feeding–they are companion animals who are happiest when they are part of a family. We’ve bred them to be dependent on us, so abusing them is amazingly cruel. I also come from a very impoverished background in a very Gummo-like area where animal torture was pretty commonplace.
My ex rescued some kittens (really young ones) that had been left in a paper bag in the middle of the road. Apparently someone thought this was a good way to get rid of unwanted kittens. Someone had already hit the bag, so some of the kittens were dead. The remainder found good homes, including one she kept. Being a grad student working in a high pressure lab she broke the rules and kept the kitten with her through the 20 hour days she was pulling. The other students were so enamoured of the kitten that she had to impliment a sign out sheet for kitty de-stress time (and so she could find the cat, which was constantly being taken on little adventures). The cat is now an adult and is the single most loving animal I have ever met. She’s by my feet right now, happily purring away and licking my toes.
My ex rescued some kittens (really young ones) that had been left in a paper bag in the middle of the road. Apparently someone thought this was a good way to get rid of unwanted kittens. Someone had already hit the bag, so some of the kittens were dead. Mother-fucker.
This reminds me of the story from a few years back about this waste of skin who decided to dispose of his Rottie’s puppies by stuffing them in a burlap sack and burying them. The Rottie had different ideas… neighbors found the mother dog chewing through the sack, which she had dug up, and called the SPCA when they realized what the contents were. Amazingly enough, the puppies survived. The authorities confiscated the mother Rottie and her pups and fined the living crap out of that cretin.
What the dickens?… You know, serial killers are known for their cruelty to animals, especially while young. It’s one of the classic warning signs.
Oh my God, those parents in Minnesota are insane. Hello, nine years old is plenty old enough to understand “don’t wiggle into the exhibit,” and also “if you’d been respectful to the wild animals, you wouldn’t be getting the painful shots.” I mean, HELLO!!!! It’s called a logical consequence. When I was a kid and my mom caught me stealing candy in the supermarket, she marched my ass up to the manager, told him in a loud voice what I’d done, and made me apologize in front of the whole store. And I was six, not nine. If I’d done something as incredibly stupid as what this kid did, she’d probably make me go to the zoo every weekend to do impromptu community service as an apology. Your nine year old (and nine is plenty old enough to understand) pulls this shit, and your response is to demand the animals be killed? The fuck? They’re tiny little meerkats, not pitbulls, and she had no business barging into their enclosure. THe rabies shot are what we call a logical consequence. Besides, wouldn’t it make more sense to give blood tests to all the animals in order to determine whether they had rabies or not, and only euthanize them if and when it’s been established that there’s a health risk. WHAT THE FUCK? Sorry to shout, but some parents are just dumb! What a lesson to teach your kid, who is incidentally old enough to know better. Wasn’t there a post here a while back about a blogger whose preschooler forced a nickel down the family cat’s throat? Poor kitty had to have abdominal surgery to get the coin out, but mom and dad didn’t have it put down because their very small child didn’t understand that you don’t do that to animals. In fact, if I remember the post correctly, mom and dad used the incident as a teachable moment to hammer home the lesson that Kitty needing an operation was a direct consequence of Kid’s actions. And that kid was, like, three, not nine. As for the kittens, I agree with the posters who said it sounded like a mental illness issue. On the bright side, the kittens are young enough that if they recover physically, chances are they’ll be okay mentally. I mean, it was a horrifically violent and painful event, but it was short. My cat was a rescue who’d been seized from his previous owner on a cruelty charge (though the owner wasn’t actually charged, because it turned out he was senile). He’s an adult cat who had to deal with abuse over a period of time, and he’s a mean old bastard. I called him Grendel because it was a fitting description of his personality. Many animals who’ve been abused not only don’t look cuddly, they also don’t ACT cuddly. Grendel’s what they call a fear-biter, and even though I have a fair bit of experience with nervy rescues, he still claws up my hands on a fairly regular basis. If he were a dog, he’d have probably been put down by now (I mean, there’s a limit to how much damage a cat can do. A dog is liable to be bigger, and therefore more likely to inflict serious injury). It takes very little to spook him, and he can go from purring to scratching and biting in the blink of an eye. An animal that’s been abused over a long period of time will probably come out of their ordeal physically better off, but they’re often virtually unadoptable because they’re scared of people and a scared animal can get really damn mean. An animal that young may end up with ugly bald patches from the burn, but it probably won’t develop trust issues which make it hard to adopt. You should’ve seen the looks on the SPCA clinic staff’s faces when I brought him in for a follow-up medical appointment less than a week after adopting him. He’d been in the clinic getting a medical problem treated, and had obviously been quite memorable, and not in a good way. When I checked in at the front desk using the name the shelter had given him, the tech paled and said in a very small voice, “Oh. Are you bringing him back?” She looked ludicrously relieved to discover that he wasn’t really back. Hell, he scratched the hell of out of one of the other techs when he was being transferred from his cage to the pet carrier the day I adopted him (I damn near changed my mind after watching that). He moves FAST.
Raincitygirl: Unfortunately, as I understand it, there isn’t a blood test for rabies at this point. The brain itself needs to be examined/tested to determine if there is rabies present or not, or the animal needs to be confined until it starts showing other definite symptoms, which are not “definite” in the legal sense. Please — someone correct me if I’m wrong on this, but I think that’s still the case. Those parents are asses, and I sincerely hoped they get *hissed* at whenever they go out in public for A Very Long Time. Give Grendel whatever pettins’ and lovins’ he’ll accept and tell him they’re from me. 🙂 He sounds like a tough old kitty who really, really deserves the good home he’s found. (Not sure I’d have the guts to adopt one like him, so you have MUCH admiration from me!)
Raincitygirl: Unfortunately, as I understand it, there isn’t a blood test for rabies at this point. The brain itself needs to be examined/tested to determine if there is rabies present or not, or the animal needs to be confined until it starts showing other definite symptoms, which are not “definite” in the legal sense. Please — someone correct me if I’m wrong on this, but I think that’s still the case. Ah. Gotcha. That makes sense. Kind of lke Creuzfeld-Jakob (mad cow disease), which can only be diagnosed by an autopsy on the brain tissue. Mind you, I still agree with you that the parents are asshats (not only hissed at, I hope they get rotten tomatoes thrown at them. And are barred from that zoo for life). My mom would’ve made me get the damn shots, and reminded me every time I complained about the pain that I had nobody to blame but myself. As for Grendel, when he’s not trying to kill me, he can be a real sweetie. And he’s got loads of personality. Both my cats had died in the space of two months (of separate illnesses) and I didn’t want to get some boring animal to replace a couple of unique characters. He’s a project all right, but I wanted a project. And I already had experience with rescues. Plus, I visited him at his foster home before he got sick and had to go to the clinic, so I knew he wasn’t always a snarling, savage wild beast (not that he was nice to me on our first meeting, but he didn’t attack me). I wouldn’t wish this brat on anybody who didn’t know exactly what they were getting into. Mind you, I will put in the obligatory plug for people who want to adopt to consider an adult animal rather than a kitten or puppy, as they’re a lot tougher to place even if they’re not psychotic. Besides, they’re already fixed, and you already know what kind of personality they have. Or the shelter staff know, and can match you up with an animal that fits what you’re looking for. Sorry, I’m sure you already know that. Just a PSA for any lurkers. BTW, my Scottish granny told me the most hilarious story about an adorable little kitten once. Apparently this couple from Edinburgh had gone on vacation in the Highlands, and discovered this poor little kitten while they were out hiking. Being soft-hearted, they took it back home with them and eventually took it to the vet. Turned out to be a Scottish wildcat. No, not a feral cat, a wildcat. They’re bigger, and have huge ear tufts and significantly larger fangs than housecats, but it was just a kitten so it looked cuddly enough. So yeah, their adoptee had to go to a wildlife refuge, as the vet apparently told them that once it grew up it would probably eat their other cat. So be careful when you pick up strays!
Mind you, I will put in the obligatory plug for people who want to adopt to consider an adult animal rather than a kitten or puppy, as they’re a lot tougher to place even if they’re not psychotic. Besides, they’re already fixed, and you already know what kind of personality they have. Also, they’re probably already toilet trained, so that’s a plus. To be honest, I wonder why pet stores even sell cats and dogs when there are already so many in shelters.
Both of our furry children are rescue animals. Our dog was at least 6-7 years old when we got him in 1995 and is now at least 18 years old. He has been the most wonderful companion. The fact that he was an older dog and displayed his wonderful nature was a huge factor in our selecting him. Our cat was past the “cute kitten” stage, kind of in the awkward teenage phase when I found her. I knew she was mine the minute she wrapped herself around my neck and started purring madly. One of my co-workers, on the other hand, bought a “cute” kitten from a pet store and it is the most psychotic creature I have ever met. So, I am definitely in support of adopting older animals. We know that someone will always want the puppies and kittens, but they often overlook a superb companion by doing so.
Tangent, but raincity, Creutzfeldt-Jakob isn’t exactly mad cow, although it appears to be related. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, often called mad cow disease) in cows, scrapie in sheep, and diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and kuru in humans are all prion diseases that result in holes in the brain’s nerve cells. And while it’s true that brain tissue biopsy is the most reliable diagnosis, other steps can often be taken to diagnose before brain biopsy, although sadly there is no cure at this point. CJD is currently the most common of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, although it’s never gotten the kind of coverage that BSE got during the UK’s big rash of cases–despite the case that a number of CJD cases have been linked to eating tainted beef.
re: the meercats – the part that absolutely boggles me about this is that rabies shots are not especially painful. They don’t do the whole needle-in-the-stomach thing anymore, and haven’t for years; they’re just regular shots. I had the series about ten years ago after I was bitten by a feral cat and one of my sisters had them as a preventative (she takes care of a feral cat colony). The only really unpleasant aspect was paying for them; the series cost over a thousand dollars.
Re: rabies shots That so good to know!! I had no idea that the delivery had changed — that would be a GOOD thing to get out to the public, especially in the wake of the whole meerkat incident. Those parents are even bigger morons and asses with that information in mind. I’m ashamed to come from the same state. *sigh*
When my husband told me the meercat story, my response was to wonder whether the Zoo was pursuing civil damages for destruction of property. At the very least, this family’s negligence and callousness should be punished financially.