Let’s say she was convicted. You’re the judge. What sentence would you hand down?
If, God willing, the Animal Legal Defense Fund receive the court documents in this matter from the prosecutor and if they are able to conclude that there is a case to answer and she is duly charged, convicted and sentenced, what crime-appropriate sentence would suit her crime?
I am temped to ask because back in 2005 Judge Michael A Cicconetti (an Ohio judge), made a very nice crime-appropriate sentence which was well suited the crime of domestic animal abandonment.
The convicted defendant was 25-year-old Michelle M Murray. She had abandoned 35 kittens in two parks in Mentor, Ohio.
Park rangers knew that she was responsible because she had left identification collars on the kittens (weird).
The judge gave the convict two options for a sentence:
- Spend 90 days in jail or
- Spend 14 days in jail and spend 15 days under house arrest and donate $3,200 to the Humane Society and donate $500 to the park rangers and (here is the fun bit): spend one night alone in the woods!
The judge said to the convicted defendant:
“How would you like to be dumped off at a metro park late at night, spend the night listening to the coyotes … , listening to the raccoons around you in the dark night, and sit out there in the cold not knowing where you’re going to get your next meal, not knowing when you are going to be rescued?”
Perfect, I’d say. This particular judge is well-known for “crime appropriate sentences” and he has an imagination!
Do you have imagination with respect to Kristen Lindsey?
We had a judge in Greenwood years ago like this. He would tell the person on trial to go outside and count the courthouse steps and that’s how many years the sentence was.
I don’t want to see her in jail. I want her to pay a large fine and lose her license. But more than that, I want her to have to do hundreds of hours of service standing on a street corner with a front and back poster of Tiger with the bow and arrow through his poor little head that reads “I killed this sweet cat because I like to kill.” That’s better than jail any day.
Perhaps you are right Michele. But she needs to be “reprogrammed”. She needs to think differently. That may not be achievable but it may be and one way to do it is for her to get involved with helping cats and animals and hopefully learning to enjoy it rather than getting enjoyment from killing them. It is about education and rehabilitation.
I would like to see Ms Lindsey jailed and her vet license revoked permanently. Better yet, I’d like to see her name go on a public register of animal abusers.
Sorry Michael, but the thought of her doing voluntary work with cats makes me shudder. She has shown no remorse for her actions because she doesn’t believe she has done anything wrong. Any voluntary work, or talks/essays on the morality of killing animals for fun, would be nothing more than hollow platitudes.
Animal abusers don’t usually fare too well in prison ๐
I think the sentence should be a combination: revoke vet license, short prison sentence, work in a cat shelter for a few months, write a 1,000 page essay on why it is immoral to like to kill animals, teach the immoral aspect of killing animals for pleasure to children at school, teach children at school how we should respect animals, write another 1,000 word essay on why we should respect animals. That sort of stuff appeals to me ๐ .
An afterthought on this would be for her to spend some time in jail, so she may be subject to the treatment she deserves, from imprisoned cat lovers!
Seems like a very smart and unusual judge! I can’t seem to access my imagination in this one. I’d just remove her ability to legally practice veterinary medicine for 10 years.
And maybe donate $5,000 to a feral TNR fund.
I’m curious about what will actually happen. Is it too much to hope for serious consequences?