OWNER OF STARVED PIT BULL FOUND AND CHARGED. Should Animal Abuse, Neglect And/Or Killing Be A Felony Offense?

The one time I truly believe we need to go back to the old testament and live by the "eye for an eye" rule........you starve an animal....you get starved, you beat, torture, or kill an animal-same happens to you-just as cruel, just as painful as what you did to that innocent four legged soul..........I am so angry over seeing these worthless creeps getting just a slap on the wrist........it is time we all showed up at the state house in 2013 and force the senate to do what (thanks to NIehaus) they neglected to do this past year and that is defend and protect and put a felony law in place for justice when something like this happens......

As a lover of animals, especially dogs, I completely agree with you. EVERY state in the U.S. should make ANY type of animal abuse a felony, and ANY creep who violates the law should get a mandatory prison sentence and a hefty fine. Perhaps THAT would reduce such crimes. God bless all creatures great and small.

A bastard indeed. (And many more nasty adjectives to describe this creep.) I can see from your avatar that you're a dog-lover, and you are among the many folks on this thread who are totally outraged by what happened to this poor pit bull. Thanks for your comments, my friend, and have a good one!

Animals can not speak for themselves, or feed themselves if prevented from it...We are their guardians, and anyone who could do this unspeakable horror to an animal or another human, should be made to suffer while still on this earth. Not only should he be jailed for quite sometime, he should have to pay the vet bill, and then be starved himself.

You bring up an excellent point. Can you imagine how exorbitant the vet bills are going to be to save this poor pit bull? (Although it's my understanding that the dog-loving public has donated money toward Audrey's care, and there have been many offers to adopt her after she's well enough to leave the animal hospital.) I will NEVER understand why some creeps feel the need to abandon, neglect, abuse and/or kill ANY animal. Lest we forget, monsters like Jeffrey Dahmer got their start torturing and brutally killing small animals early in their lives. IMO, anybody who could lock up a dog and starve it almost to death is capable of doing just about ANYTHING. People like this jerk are sociopaths, IMO, and they deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Hell, if nothing else, take unwanted pets to the local animal shelter. At least there they'd have a fighting chance to survive. Thanks for your excellent comments, Muver! And God bless all creatures great and small.

Thank you, I just can not tolerate this sort of thing, not even one tiny little bit, And there is not one tiny reason for it ever. I hope Audrey, will finally find peace with a loving understand family, and I know she will forever be grateful. Animals, like children are gifts from God, and must be treated as such.

As with many other crimes, there should be both misdemeanor and felony charges available for the prosecution to utilize depending on severity and circumstances.

Judging from the condition of this poor pit bull when it was found, this creep deserves to be charged with a felony offense. (BTW, Audrey was left in an enclosed, locked space for so long, the pads of her paws are infected from standing in her own feces, and she's having a hard time walking. Can you believe such cruelty?) As always, thanks for your comments, Jon, and I hope you're having a great 2012 thus far!

I am aware of a similar case here in my town some months back. A man was under a restraining order to stay away from his last place of residence. His ex retained possession of the home. She moved out and left the two dogs in the house to starve to death.

I have difficulty believing that people actually do such things.

Thanks for the well-wishes. For reasons I don't yet understand, I am feeling considerably more optimistic in 2012 than I did in 2011.

For humane, decent human beings, it IS indeed difficult to believe that there are some creeps in this world who do such things. I mean, take unwanted pets to an animal shelter, where they at least have a fighting chance to live. I'm assuming that based on the case you talked about, the bitch who left the dogs in the house to starve to death may have been motivated by the situation with her ex-partner. IMO, doing something so spiteful that kills another living, breathing thing makes it even worse. This past November, in Fairfield, Ohio, a man was convicted and sentenced to 179 days in jail for beating his girlfriend's one-year-old dachshund to death after it urinated on the carpet. The justice system needs to enact and enforce rigid animal cruelty statutes to the fullest extent of the law, and maybe then these morons would think twice before committing such crimes. I'm just guessing here, but I'd imagine the other inmates wouldn't treat dog-killers very kindly, and for good reason!

P.S. I forgot to add that I'm glad you're feeling more optimistic this year than you were in 2011. I realize the economy isn't growing as quickly as we'd like, but at least things are looking better. I hope you can hang onto your hopeful and rosy outlook for 2012 all year long. Keep the faith, my friend!

That is the odd part - I see no indications of anything getting better and many indications that they are about to get a whole lot worse. I don't indulge in hope or optimism, but still it feels like something has changed.

It's amazing what just changing the number on the calendar to a new year will do for you! I'm also a "glass-half-empty" kind of tigger, but for some reason, I'm feeling a bit better about things, too. I'm keeping my tigger-paws crossed...[haha]

Who the F starves an animal???!!! It's sick. Disgusting. Felony is in order.

I totally agree with you. Thanks for your comments, D D!

starve his fat ass

An eye for an eye... Thanks for your response, Twin!

Where do you draw the lines?

This is a tough one.

*I* personally think that dogs, horses, chickens, ducks (they're an interesting species), fish, and oysters deserve as much consideration as humans. But I also recognize that other humans consider me insane for this.

Maybe this update on the pit bull's condition will help you decide. Poor Audrey was left in an enclosed, locked space for so long, the pads of her paws are infected from standing in her own feces, and she's having a hard time walking. I think that any way you look at it, such cruelty goes beyond the pale. I don't think you're "insane" for wanting to give animals as much consideration as humans. I say, God bless all creatures great and small. Thanks for sharing your opinion, and have a great day!

So, in other words, she's basically the same as pretty much all the other bitches who pump out puppies that most people buy. Not to mention most of the meat we eat.

I agree that it's beyond the pale. But it's also the norm. This is a huge reason that I try to be mostly vegetarian. Stuff like this is *horrible*...but this is reality. And, odds are, I'll eat some factory pork or poultry tomorrow morning.

Most people never get a clue how awful our current reality is.

It gets much, much worse. I dated a geneticist for a while. Their definition for a species' success is the prevalence of its DNA. By that definition, chickens are almost as successful as cockroaches.

I'm willing to bet you know how miserable most of their lives are.

I'm tempted to go cry for a bit.

Heh. The pragmatist in me has always tended to make the glass totally empty (bring me another beer!) while the theorist realizes it's always totally full...it's just that part of what's filling it is air. I try to be optimistically realistic, but the world's a damn ugly place.

I agree with you about the philosophy of the Natives. OTOH, one of my first lessons as a hunter was that *something* will find use for any spare body part that I don't.

I mostly agree with you about pits. They can make great pets. The owners who fight them should be fed to them.

Yay! for Audrey. Thanks for the update.

My friend, we are more alike than you even know! I was glad to give you the update on Audrey's condition. This story was so horrific, I thought dog-lovers could use some good news! She'll be in the animal hospital for a bit longer, to give her paws a chance to heal and so she can be spayed, but she's gaining weight, and people are standing in line to adopt her! Sadly, this is only one isolated incident of animal cruelty out of atrocities that are committed every single day.

Yeah. :-(

I was once dear friends with an animal rescuer. She couldn't find time for pits, because all the others had a better chance for being ultimately rescued. It broke my heart...but you have to pick and choose who you help.

Thank you for the update on Audrey. It sounds like she's going to find a great home, and that brightens my day. :-)

Always glad to bring a smile to your face, my good friend! Have a great weekend!

With mandatory jail time!

I agree. Thanks for your response, Doug!

Neglect, no, but abuse- YES. Intentionally inflicting violence upon an animal should definitely be a felony. Sometimes people who are ill or mentally unstable neglect animals, but intentionally harming one is unforgivable. I am a crazy cat lady, and I empathize with the innocent animals that are abused and murdered by humans for no reason at all.

Thanks for your comments, Bibliophilic!

The problem is some people like to say they are just animals they are not human. WELL try telling my dogs that. They have feelings and personalities and they love. So I say put that asshead away like you would if it were a child he was starving.

P.S. Thanks Tiggger for bringing this to my attention.

Family pets, especially dogs, give their owners unconditional love, and they can even read human emotions. If you ask me, the perpetrator of this crime was more of an animal than the poor dog he allowed to starve almost to death. I have zero use for people who do such things. Thanks for your comments, my friend, and have a great evening!

Yeah. AFAICT, abusing an animal companion like this ranks right up there with pedophilia.

Just FYI, this past November, in Fairfield, Ohio (not far from where this other crime was committed), a man was sentenced to 179 days in jail for beating his girlfriend's one-year-old dachshund to death for urinating on the carpet. Even though he was only charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, six months in jail is nothing to sneeze at.

There's another one that I'm not going to discuss publicly. :-/ (But good on them for doing *something* to that bastard)

Cruelty to any animal is sickening. Such pet owners should be severely punished. Giving Mike Vick too lenient a sentence set a bad example. I report animal abuse when seeing it happening anywhere.

You are a true animal lover, just like me! Thanks for your response, strawberry, and have a beautiful evening!

And a VERY long term in prison, with NO possibility of serving 'good time' to get a reduction in time served.

Such animal abusers should get the same treatment.