How many times do we have to read reports of couples arguing to the point where one of them wants to get their own back against the other by hurting a cat or kitten. In this instance the girlfriend, Ms Montgomery, question the maturity of her boyfriend, Mr Miller, after they had argued in text messages. She accused him of acting like a 12-year-old and that she wanted to end the relationship.
As it happened, Ms Montgomery owned a kitten but she was not allowed to keep that kitten at her own residence and therefore it was kept at the residence of her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was incensed by being accused of acting like a 12-year-old and decided to behave like a violent psychopathic 12-year-old by hitting Ms Montgomery’s cat repeatedly and throwing it onto the floor.
“I’ll show you a f—— 12-year-old, you want to see a f—— 12-year-old? I just smashed the (crap) out of your stupid f—— cat, eh you wanna se…I just killed your f—— cat.”
He videoed his violent abuse and sent the video to Ms Montgomery who pleaded with him to take her cat to a veterinarian a few blocks from his home. He did as requested but the veterinarian decided to euthanize the cat.
Mr Miller ended up in court on, I presume on animal cruelty charges, and the judge has ordered him to undergo a psychological risk assessment. I’ll presume (as this is not reported by the Calgary Sun online) that he has been convicted and a sentence hearing is set for December.
Comment: Something needs to be done to protect companion animals when couples are breaking up and one of them wants to lash out and hurt the other by hurting the partner’s cat. It happens all the time. It is the height of callous, mindless animal abuse. Only humans can act like this. There is little that can be done to stop it sadly. Perhaps the perpetrators should be punished for aggravated animal abuse. The punishment should be more severe when the purpose of hurting an animal is to hurt the animal’s owner.
There is no doubt that a lot of criminals are mentally ill to varying degrees. It is certain that many criminals in prisons anywhere should not be in prison but in mental health facilities instead for assessment and treatment. I don’t know if Mr Miller is mentally ill. He sounds like he has not learned to take responsibility for his actions.
