Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The Cat Killer
Here's a local story so horrifying I hesitate to post it. But I know my readers include many animal lovers.
The calculated deceits & sadism of this demented man set him apart. He doesn't even have the sorry rationale of "bloodsport," sending animals to painful deaths in cock fighting rings & dog pits. But animal cruelty is epidemic, mostly individual, invisible & ignored. I'm not even speaking of the mass production food industry. Pets starved, abused, neglected, abandoned. Wherever I've resided, I've had neighbors who should not have had the right to keep pets (or raise children). The easiest & most common way to train a "junkyard dog" for guarding one's backyard is to make it so miserable it wants to rip any living thing to shreds. My friend Gina brings stray cats in from the outside that obviously spent time in other human homes. One of them, Fred, a wonderful, friendly creature with a soul of his own as surely as you & I, reacts to sudden movements as if he expects to be literally kicked around, although he has received only kindness & respect from the lucky day he found shelter with Gina.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Grand jury indicts man for animal cruelty in 19 cat deathsYou can follow the link if your stomach can handle more details. Ledger commenter Joeworker writes, "This can't be his debut at this behavior." How true that must be. As we add "alleged" behavior.
Anthony Appolonia answered newspaper advertisements seeking homes for cats.
The cat rescuers who gave 19 felines to Appolonia between October and December thought they were giving the animals, house pets and stray kittens, a loving home.
Instead, the 50-year-old unemployed Aberdeen man tortured and killed the animals while he went on the prowl for more, authorities said today.
A Monmouth County grand jury indicted Appolonia today on 19 counts of animal cruelty, offenses punishable by at least five years in prison per cat, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin.
The calculated deceits & sadism of this demented man set him apart. He doesn't even have the sorry rationale of "bloodsport," sending animals to painful deaths in cock fighting rings & dog pits. But animal cruelty is epidemic, mostly individual, invisible & ignored. I'm not even speaking of the mass production food industry. Pets starved, abused, neglected, abandoned. Wherever I've resided, I've had neighbors who should not have had the right to keep pets (or raise children). The easiest & most common way to train a "junkyard dog" for guarding one's backyard is to make it so miserable it wants to rip any living thing to shreds. My friend Gina brings stray cats in from the outside that obviously spent time in other human homes. One of them, Fred, a wonderful, friendly creature with a soul of his own as surely as you & I, reacts to sudden movements as if he expects to be literally kicked around, although he has received only kindness & respect from the lucky day he found shelter with Gina.
Labels: cats, in the news, nature
