NEWS AND COMMENT: The story of Graham William Reid, 29, a geometry teacher at a Texas high school, sheds light on the mentality of someone who tortures and kills vulnerable animals. Reid tortured and killed his cats: Cabbage, Parsnip, Carrot and Broccoli over six months until March this year. He told investigators that he tortured and killed them because it made him feel powerful. It seems that he wanted to feel powerful because he was bullied and oppressed as a child. Also, he became angry because of the usual stresses in life. This information come from court documents filed at the Fort Bend County Court.
I don’t want to go over what he did to his cats in detail but let’s just say he hit them a lot until they were dead and on one occasion he took his beaten cat to a veterinarian. He even beat to death a four-month-old kitten with a litter scoop because the cat went to the toilet outside the litter box in the bathroom.
All four cats were between the age of eight weeks to one year. Veterinarians picked up on his behaviour because he appears to have taken one or more cats to a veterinarian who realised something odd was happening and that the injuries indicated violence against the cat or cats. We are not told exactly how the veterinarian picked up on this or how many cats he or she saw but in any event a Sugar Land veterinarian informed the authorities and the police got involved.
He was arrested on April 28 and charged with four counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals. He used to work at Ridge Point High School in Fort Bend Independent School District.
A spokesperson for that district confirmed that he was no longer employed because of the allegations and charges against him. They had to let him go to safeguard their children who have been provided with counselling. The students simply did not see him one day. He made his last appearance at the school on April 29 the day after his arrest.
Comment: anger born out of bullying and oppression combined with day-to-day stressors drove this mentally fragile man to take his anger out on somebody or something which happened to be vulnerable kittens and cats in his care. Cats are often receptacles of anger and human madness. I wonder how many times this sort of story unfolds behind closed doors in countries all over the world. It is the kind of behaviour which can lead to violence against people. It would seem to me that this man is a danger to people and animals and will be for the rest of his life.
I would hope that if he is convicted after a trial that he is banned from keeping animals for life and that he is monitored and ordered to attend psychological counselling of some sort. He needs treatment and punishment. The former is a long-term project and the latter is in the immediate future. I wouldn’t expect him to be imprisoned for long because the punishment for animal cruelty cases is quite light from the perspective of animal advocates.
Source: Daily Mail.
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