Some police officers believe it is the most humane thing you can do, to place an injured animal at the target end of a firing range and to use him/her for target practice. It sounds disgusting and astonishing but that apparently is what some coppers who are part of the Merced police actually believe.
Personally, I have never heard anything so bizarre and sick in all my life. It is grossly deviant behavior and a complete breakdown in moral standards.
The Merced police quote the Californian law to justify what they do:
“…any officer… may, with the approval of his or her immediate superior, humanely destroy any abandoned animal in the field in any case where the animal is too severely injured to move or where a veterinarian is not available and it would be more humane to dispose of the animal.”
I see the connection but this piece of law is meant to permit a police officer to act in a genuinely humane way in an emergency when it is ethically and morally right to put down an animal immediately rather than waiting and taking the animal to a veterinarian.
The Merced police have totally misused this bit of legislation. It is obvious. How some of them can justify it is beyond my comprehension. There is one reason why they do it: they don’t have any form of empathy for animals. They see them as non-feeling automatons or something. On that basis this law that I have quoted should be scrapped. The Merced police don’t have sufficient sensitivity towards animals to use it properly.
The top officer, Norm Andrade, should sort this out asap.
Thanks to all of you. You all are so sweet.
I was tired, cranky, and plain fed up with everything yesterday.
I’m in a much better frame of mind today and am so excited about the Christmas boxes.
I’m running around like crazy to get everything done so I can be at Goodwill when they open at 0800. A little extra praise to hoarder Damon for making it a little easier for me when I awoke. I didn’t find EVERY kitchen counter item all over the floor.
Gotta’ go do my thing but had to check in here.
Love to all!
Have a nice day, Dee.
I’ll try to find the law for this CRAP to post.
But, it is very true that law enforcement officers as well as animal control officers have the right to “euthanize” any animal in the field that they deem too sick or injured to recover.
I don’t know why they can act as unauthorized vets; but, this is my world, folks (puke!puke!puke!).
And, Michael, truth is not bashing!
However, I don’t believe it is lawful for any officer to move the animal to any other location unless it is to a vet’s office or shelter.
I’m sorry for my mood. I’m a little overloaded by so many terrible animal stories right now. So, I have to go to a happy place and, although I hardly ever like “talking animal” stuff, this makes me smile.
Dog wants a kitten:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI4yoXyb1_M
Sorry Dee. I’ll write some more nice ones tomorrow, specially for you. As you know the trouble with cat news stories is that they are 90% bad or upsetting. That is what it looks like to me. So when I do news stuff it’s bad stuff.
We all love you so much, Michael.
Nothing is a fault of yours. It’s the world, the people, the place I have to be. I want to be with you guys. But, I won’t have my cats. Otherwise, I would be on a plane right now.
Same here, I won’t go anywhere far away because I hate leaving our cats, I would miss them too much.
The sad stories upset me too but we have to read them and see if we can help do anything about stopping the same happening again.
Sometimes I just can’t bear to watch the abuse videos, they stay in my mind along with all the rest of the horrors already there.
But our reward is the happy stories that come along and the lovely PoC family we have here 🙂
You are very good to me 😉 The story comes from a good news source, which I have forgotten sorry. I should have linked to it. Ah..he it is CBS Sacremento online.
I believe it and in my opinion the Merced police have stretched the vaguely written law to the limit for their own ends. It is apparently their policy to do this but there seems to be calls for them to stop it. About time.
“…any officer… may, with the approval of his or her immediate superior, humanely destroy any abandoned animal in the field in any case where the animal is too severely injured to move or where a veterinarian is not available and it would be more humane to dispose of the animal.”
This is so open to abuse by any gun mad officer, especially the cat hating ones. Who is to know the animal wasn’t too severely injured to move, once he/she is dead? No one is going to fund a post mortem to find out! So these officers have the freedom to go around shooting any cat they see and to get away with it.
It’s disgraceful!
I agree with Marc they are bunch of lunatics but much more dangerous than any other lunatic.
Good point again Ruth. This law leads the door wide open to abuse. If it is left up to a police officer to decide if an animal is severely injured you can be pretty certain that the animal won’t be severely injured if he officer has the chance to shoot it on a firing range. If you have a gun you have to use for real sometime.
You didn’t say which country – the man looks like hitler – don’t worry I can guess.
What a bunch of bloody lunatics. These people are actually mentally and emotionally retarded and they are law enforcement.
Scary isn’t it. It’s like ones worst possible nightmares coming true.
Another home goal for exceptionalism.
You comment made me laugh, which is welcome because I am going through a slightly difficult time.
You have guessed correctly on the country. We needn’t mention it because if we do we get accused of bashing the place.
It is like something out of Grand Theft Auto V although I have never played these games but I bet some of these police officers have.
Michael – sorry to hear that – can I ask – have you moved yet? I would imagine with the tabbys at your current/old place it’s going to be very emotional moving away from them – I think I would be in pieces over it. It would be very hard for me to let go of any cat who I had become close with.
Hope everything is ok.
I haven’t moved yet. I bought the flat mainly as an investment because London property prices are raising rapidly. I may live there but the priority is the investment. It is hard work though 🙂 I was up at 3:30 am last night!
Gosh – I’d be a mess if I had to go to work the next day after being up til 330 in the morning! Hope you can enjoy a nice nap to make up for it. I understand now you are not pressured to move which is good. Guess it’s a good time to buy property in London – mind you I guess that is always the case, but sometimes more than others. London is no longer English in many ways with such high property values. I wonder how many people living in London are from London.
Well I’m sort of happy for the tabbys – I think they need you. I think their lives are much nicer with you there – I am assuming they visit often. I’d have alot of trouble with leaving them behind but I am useless when it comes to emotional attachment to cats.
Money is better in property than banks, I say. I have made most of my money from bricks and mortar. I don’t need more than 5 hours sleep these days or even less.
The female tabby comes in at night and sleeps on a chair in the bedroom. I can tell because her hair is on it in the next day. If Charlie was not on my bed she’d join me on the bed.