STORM2K

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/14/kitte ... index.html

SUSPENED SENTANCE!!!! and he struck her!!!!! What the Heck is this legal system coming to?? Amazing.......

He'll kill someone and then get life and people will act surprised.

Throw him in the fire and see how he likes it.

Despicable!

He should have gotten a longer jail sentence and some psychological help. There's something wrong in this guy's head, because somehow he isn't empathetic and doesn't have a strong conscience. He killed four kittens now, which means that if he's angry enough, he could just kill a person too.

Exactly Regit. Will not surprise me. We should bookmark this thread. He made the bold statement of saying "I should have finished what I started" Gee, wonder what that means?

As for the kittens, I will not comment because I will get myself banned.

it seems like a light sentence

Yarrah wrote:He should have gotten a longer jail sentence and some psychological help. There's something wrong in this guy's head, because somehow he isn't empathetic and doesn't have a strong conscience. He killed four kittens now, which means that if he's angry enough, he could just kill a person too.

I agree with you. I was hoping you'd reply.

Tolerance for mistreatment of animals is an area where Europe is far superior to the United States.

Too many people in the US treat animals as objects and property. This is especially prevelant in the South, but it still more common in most places in the US than it is in most of Europe.

As some on here know, I worked for seven years running an animal shelter in the South. The majority of the people in the area thought that animals should roam free, including in roads and on others' property. And they think that if a dog is on their property they have the right to shoot it. I've spoken to other shelter directors across the country and they all have similar experiences, though in the South the people who think animals are just "things" are in the majority so it's harder to get any good legislation passed on a local scale.

The total disregard for animals as living beings leads to prevalent cruelty, whether it's directly or indirectly. I handled several cases of people intentionally and cruelly killing an animal, including one case so grizzly that it might cause some people to have trouble sleeping, so I won't mention any details.

The ability to torture an animal is purely evil and must be treated as such by the courts. Unfortunately, in my state torturing an animal is not a violent crime, but possession of dope is. If you can figure out the logic there, I'll give you a buffalo nickel.

There is no logic regit, the guy should suffer like the kittens did. I would say more but I would be banned for what I am really thinking.

@ Regit: I'm not sure of you're familiar with our system of TBS (TerBeschikkingStelling), but it's a special kind of jail sentence where criminals who committed a crime (often associated with some form of violence) are not only being jailed, but also helped to overcome their psycholigical problem. It doesn't always work, but 80% of the criminals that have been helped and released into society can somehow function normally. TBS would be perfect for this guy, because it's clear that something's wrong with his mind. We've had a similar case, where a man, who did terrible things to horses and sheep and who attacked a tramp, was sentenced to TBS.

Anyway, animal rights are probably better in Europe then in the US, but it's still not everything. In this country, there's still a lot of industrial agriculture (large livestock farms where animals are put in a small box). But luckily, things are changing; industrial agriculture where animals are seen as products will be banned in 2012 and if the left-wing parties win the General Elections next week, animals rights could just be added to the constitution.

Regit - big time kudos for you and working the animal shelter for so long. I would be an emotional wreck if I attempted the same thing, so we just make sure all animals we take in as companions are rescue animals - either we find them as strays or from a shelter. I swear, dogs that are rescued seem to understand they've been rescued, and are actually grateful for it. Not all of us in the South are beasts!

An unfortunate consequence of illegal immigration is that same attitude of animals as "things" or "property" getting worse every day in the Houston area. And no, I'm not turning this into some racist/xenophobic thing. Fact is, I see it every day in my own neighborhood. Cats and dogs, unaltered of course, allowed to roam freely. One illegal family who used to live two doors down from us went through 5 dogs in about 2 years. They would either run off, starve or get run over in the street. I had the SPCA out there numerous times and they would hide the dogs and deny owning any. The father just shrugged it off when the kids were crying hysterically because their little pointer got splattered in front of them. He just shoveled the remains into a bag, put it in the trash can, and said, "I'll get them another one tomorrow." We were all ready to knock him senseless, but settled for some heated words. I'm not saying it's all the illegal alien's problem - plenty of US citizens are just as bad, but it's more a part of the culture south of the border to see animals as expendable instead of sentient beings, and they're bringing those same attitudes to the US with no effort at or intention of changing. <steps off soap box>

Violence and alcohol is learned behaviour. Clearly addiction is at work here. There should have been a pre-sentence investigation. I suspect you would find that there is a history in his immediate family. Long term treatment and house arrest would have been an appropriate sentencing.

Violence, alcoholism and animal cruelty isn't limited to the south as has been suggested. Alcoholism and violence transcends all boundaries.