2 NOTICES: WARNING AS THIS PICTURE IS NOT PLEASANT. Secondly, in some ways I am sorry to publish the picture. Yes, I am reluctant to do it. I have blurred the child’s face and the text on his shirt to anonymize him although Facebook has not.
I know how people become sick of this sort of picture. It is unsettling and distressing to a lot of people and we become tired of them. However, set against this genuine concern I feel that we have to discuss and criticise the actions of people, particularly kids, who think it is okay to be cruel to animals. The outdoor cat, stray or domestic, is always a target for shooters (people who like to shoot and kill animals for pleasure).
Of course cat haters and hunters would argue that this boy, who looks about ten-years-of-age, is doing a great job and should receive praise. He’ll go on to shoot many more cats, some of whom will be someone’s cherished pet and he’ll enjoy hunting bobcats and anything else that moves provided it isn’t human although he may not stop at humans.
Sport hunters would say they that he ‘euthanised the cat’ and provided a service. BS I say. It is just plain cruel and if they don’t realise it I feel sorry for them. A part of their brain is missing. This photo is particularly disturbing because it is a boy. As Empty Cages Worldwide said:
“One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it!”
Disgust
Yes, this child is no longer innocent. His father has taught him to enjoy killing rather than to respect animals. He has been taught that it is okay to shoot animals for fun and disregard: the pain he is causing for his fun, the fact that the cat might be a pet, the inherent immorality of killing animals for pleasure. I feel sorry for the boy. He’ll live with his peers who will in the main see his behaviour as normal. But outsiders to his community, enlightened thinkers, the decent people of the world, will look at him now with sorrow and when he is an adult with disgust.
True conservation starts with prevention. Cats do not need to be eradicated but negligent owners need to be the biggest part of the solution.
I am not an extremist in any form I do however sense the extremism you feel about killing all cats despite programs that reduce feral colonies once bad pet owners are no longer contributing. Using a blunt club at the end of the problem will never solve anything but your personal hatred against cats. There is indeed an excess population of cats and dogs and that is 100% fueled by human neglect. Realistically we need a major reduction in available pets and standards that decrease the chances of abandonment and backyard breeding. I also wish all AC ordinances included cats in clauses about astray animals. I have 4 cats and they are under my control at all times. If one got out I would expect it to be returned or taken to a shelter not shot by a maniac and his kid with a gun. I wouldn’t even gripe about a fine i’d pay it happily to have them back. Too bad that child’s father didn’t get himself neutered before he passed on his archaic beliefs.
Your attitude about cats is a typical punish the victim while the real criminal carries on without fear of reprisal.
Thanks Mary.
Oh Honey, the only one I see here valuing one life over another is you. It also seems you like your living organisms to be “pure”. Hmmmm, now where have I heard that before? Finally, why are you here? To lecture? Spread propaganda? I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you’re a troll.
That boy, and those like him, are NOT shooters. A shooter does like using firearms, but has been educated and properly trained and almost always uses paper or electronic targets when aiming and firing down range. Other targets can be water jugs, melons, etc. But never live animals or people. The only exception are the military and their snipers, but that is something totally different.
Neither is he a real hunter because real hunters kill for only two reasons: food and self-defense.
This boy, and those like him, are more likely to fit in the terrorist category because they enjoy killing to make a statement. This group includes murderers because they kill for thrills also.
It is sad that there are sick and twisted people, especially ones who reproduce more sick and twisted people.
Jane I was going to reproduce the picture ‘as is’ but Elisa convinced me to blur it. I was in 2 minds. It is unblurred on Facebook. My argument was why should I anonymise the blighter?
Aaah well, just another junior adult permanently shaped for a life destroying any living being they fancy, for shits & giggles AND getting praise for it.
I wouldn’t have afforded this cruel child the respect of anonymity. But this isn’t my website & there are laws supposedly ‘protecting’ children from dangers online.
I can only go so far in according this child the convenient benefit of being an ‘innocent’
victim of terrible parenting.
At the age of ten he is able to discern right from wrong, kindness from cruelty, food from non food etc. His environment has dictated that he will ignore those truths that he knows for himself. This boy is a product of parental abuse.
This child, whether killing for fun is, in his mind, the best thing ever, or it’s just one of the few ways of getting positive attention/affection from his father, the boy he was born has now gone. That loving, sociable, non violent little soul has deliberately turned into an antisocial serial killer of any living beings that he sets his gun sights on.
Another potentially good human ruined. Another truly beautiful feline life destroyed.
Not every child hunter stops at killing animals.