Are the big animal charities putting pressure on the prosecution services and the police to ensure that animal cruelty offenders at least face trail? The police and state prosecutors often need to be cajoled or encouraged into pursuing animal cruelty criminals because not enough of them are brought to book for their crimes. Who can do this?
There is an interesting case in which Alley Cat Allies rallied local and national support, together with offering a reward, to catch the criminal who was killing animals in general including 10 cats in South Bend, Indiana.
Alley Cat Allies worked with the South Bend authorities and another group called Michiana Feral Cat Initiative to put pressure on the investigators in an effort to ensure that justice was done.
Pam Wesolowski, Director of Michiana Feral Cat Initiative, expresses her point of view on these matters which very much chimes with mine:
“After a certain amount of time, you just figure that one more person got away with it all….”
However, on this occasion she is pleased to finish that sentence with the words:
“…thank you for all that you do and for being such great support for animals when a community only has a small group like us to spread the word.”
I don’t know how often well-known animal advocacy charities use their muscle to keep the pressure up so that animal cruelty cases are raised to a priority level rather than languishing in the in-tray until the case dies a natural death.
The criminal in this instance is Ares Lee Howard. He has been charged with three counts of killing a domestic animal and ten (believed) counts of mutilating a vertebrate animal. Some of the cats were feral and I believe three where domestic cats.
It appears that some neighbors knew what he was up to, which indicates that until pressured the police were being lazy on this case. The evidence was there.
At Howard’s home, police found a BB gun, a Ruger .22 pistol and .22 calibre ammunition.
Howard had been shooting and killing the cats through specially designed firing holes. Two holes were in a fence overlooking a vacant lot where the dead animals were found.
In his garage there was window covered with a blanket with a hole in it through which he could shoot without being seen.
In addition, the police discovered a history of searching for information about how to kill feral cats and the laws in the state on search warrants on his computer.
A witness said he had seen Howard bait the animals to ensure that they presented themselves in a position where he could fire on them. This witness had spoken to the police last summer, a year ago.
Eight of the ten killed cats underwent necropsies. Most had suffered several BB gun pellet wounds causing death.
How can a person extract pleasure for this sort of activity? He has got to be slightly mad. We now hope the full force of the law comes down on him and that his sentence on conviction (which seems to be a forgone conclusion) is satisfactory.
Can Alley Cat Allies get involved with the Kristen Lindsey case? Or some other major animal advocacy group? It needs pushing along badly.
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Until you all learn the difference perfectly legal shoot-to-kill and animal-cruelty shoot-to-maim then you’re all just going to perpetually spin your own wheels in the sand.
You will never apply the same laws to animals’ deaths as you do humans — not until you start serving-up slabs of human in the butcher’s aisle at your local grocery store. Then and only then will “right to life” laws apply equally to animal and human.
Your comment is idiotic as usual. This article is not about shooting to kill cats. Secondly, to equate equality between animals and the human animal (we are animals don’t forget) by how they are presented in a butcher’s shop is imbecilic.
Im sick of it throw them all in prison
DITTO!
More of them would end up in prison if the law was enforced more vigorously in respect of cat and animal cruelty. This article is about enforcement of animal cruelty laws. A lot of people think they are not enforced adequately. I would like to see more lobbying by respected charities and organisations to force the authorities to prosecute properly and fairly rather than treat animal cruelty as a low priority crime which it is not.