Please sign the petition - starved puppies to death

Quasar

The only just thing now is that, since their names and photos have been made public, they get the stick they deserve from those who know them.

While I agree that cruelty to animals is not on the same level as cruelty to other humans (be they children or adults), I still think animals are beings capable of suffering as greatly as us, and that the infliction of such distress and death SHOULD carry a very harsh fine and a lot more than 200 hours community work.

Besides, keeping the dead dogs in the home like that, after starving them to death, is not a sign of a healthy psyche anyway, so there is much there that ought to be done from a medical/psychiatric point of view.

Hi Muttley, hope you're ok. :hello:

supersaver2

This case was a bit more than 'hitting a dog' this was starving 8 puppies until they died. I can't imagine the suffering they endured. The sentences were a joke and for the suffering they caused they should have received the maximum prison sentence available. Believe it or not dogs do feel pain like us and do suffer.

j.e.j.

supersaver2 wrote: »

This case was a bit more than 'hitting a dog' this was starving 8 puppies until they died. I can't imagine the suffering they endured. The sentences were a joke and for the suffering they caused they should have received the maximum prison sentence available. Believe it or not dogs do feel pain like us and do suffer.

There's no need for the emotive language. It goes without saying a dog would feel pain and suffer. I think the laws regarding dog ownership in this country urgently need to be re-thought.

Far too many times do people get hold of dogs who have no clue as to how to handle them. Other times it's pure wilful neglect or cruelty. It usually ends up hitting the headlines when a dog has gone berserk and mauled someone to death, - again, no penalty for the owners because legally they've done nothing wrong.

It's far too easy for clueless eejits to own a dog, imo. They need to tighten up the dog licencing and introduce tougher penalties for owners whose dogs bite and kill people, or who have wilfully neglected the animal.

artbaron

But that's not comparing like with like.

Starve your child to death - life in jail.
Lock your wife up and starve her to death - life in jail.
Starve your dogs to death - a few hours with a dustpan and brush.

No, it was deliberate. If they didn't want the puppies they could have put a free ad in the paper and they'd be gone within a couple of days. Or they could have phone the RSPCA or any animal shelter, again, five minutes of their time. And although these people look as intelligent as pond scum, even pond scum knows that dogs require water and food to live, and that when one dog is eating the corpse of another it's probably a little hungry.

In total honesty I'd be happy to brick these people up in a room myself. All of them, in a 6x6 cell for a full month. I'd give them water every day but no facilities and no food (although I would consider putting a fresh McDonald's burger outside the room every day so the smell wafted under the door). If they survived then hopefully they'd learn their lesson. If not, stick them in landfill with the rest of the garbage.

j.e.j.

artbaron wrote: »

But that's not comparing like with like.
Starve your child to death - life in jail.

Baby P's mother was out in 4 years. The thug of a lodger was out in 2 (before he got recalled for breaking his bail conditions)

Lock your wife up and starve her to death - life in jail.

Should be, but I doubt it. Very few people really get life in prison these days, it seems.. which is why:

Starve your dogs to death - a few hours with a dustpan and brush.

With the legal system, it's a case of paying your debt to society, not retribution for the victim.

As Misski says, these people should have a lifetime ban from owning ANY animals. Emotion-driven rants from animal lovers up and down the land is completely understandable, but not helpful.

People like that should not be owning animals in the first place, imo, but it's how to police it so that unsuitable people don't end up owning dogs they can't or won't look after?

artbaron

j.e.j. wrote: »

With the legal system, it's a case of paying your debt to society, not retribution for the victim.

What about the reduction of the risk of re-offending and the deterrent aspects? I'd say my solution fulfills these two far better than the court decision.

The risk of these people re-offending has not been lessened because the punishment has been so soft. They could go out a buy a dog tomorrow and nobody would stop them or be any the wiser. With my solution you could bet they'd never go within hailing distance of another dog.

What deterrent does the current sentence give to people who are mistreating animals, or who will do so in the future? They don't care because they know that even if they're caught they won't go to jail. I'm confident the locked room punishment or something equally appopriate would send the right message.

j.e.j. wrote: »

As Misski says, these people should have a lifetime ban from owning ANY animals.

They have, but it cannot currently be enforced.

j.e.j. wrote: »

People like that should not be owning animals in the first place, imo, but it's how to police it so that unsuitable people don't end up owning dogs they can't or won't look after?

The proper way to do it would be to licence dog ownership - and perhaps other animals too - and increase the sentence for animal cruelty to be beyond that for property. It's ridiculous that the maximum sentence for smashing someone's TV up is 28 times more harsh than that for torturing and killing a dog.

Sparhawke

artbaron wrote: »

The proper way to do it would be to licence dog ownership - and perhaps other animals too - and increase the sentence for animal cruelty to be beyond that for property. It's ridiculous that the maximum sentence for smashing someone's TV up is 28 times more harsh than that for torturing and killing a dog.

Dog licensing never worked since it was mandatory yet was never enforced and as such was pretty much ignored by most people. Why do people think this would work anyway?

catkins

supersaver2 wrote: »

This case was a bit more than 'hitting a dog' this was starving 8 puppies until they died. I can't imagine the suffering they endured. The sentences were a joke and for the suffering they caused they should have received the maximum prison sentence available. Believe it or not dogs do feel pain like us and do suffer.

Starving 1 dog to death deserves prison. Starving 8 dogs to death! I can only assume whoever decided the sentence was not particularly a dog lover.

artbaron

Sparhawke wrote: »

Dog licensing never worked since it was mandatory yet was never enforced and as such was pretty much ignored by most people. Why do people think this would work anyway?

You said it yourself, there's no point having a law and not enforcing it. I'm sure that if nobody was ever prosecuted for driving a car without a licence we'd all be doing it.

catkins

j.e.j. wrote: »

With the legal system, it's a case of paying your debt to society, not retribution for the victim.

As Misski says, these people should have a lifetime ban from owning ANY animals. Emotion-driven rants from animal lovers up and down the land is completely understandable, but not helpful.

Is it honestly a case of paying your debt to society? Sentences vary crazily in this country and it definitely seems that a crime which involves money (even relatively small amounts) almost always receive a harsher sentence. Money seems to matter more to judges and magistrates than lives.

Banning them from keeping animals for life is nowhere near punishment enough and cannot possibly be enforced anyway.

I cannot believe a woman and her two grown up children just thought it was ok to lock 8 puppies in a room and totally ignore them. Those poor pups must have cried and howled and yet the morons ignored them.

I bet they originally were going to try and sell them to make money but if they couldn't cope they should have got on to the rspca or a rescue. There is no excuse whatsoever.

A mother got 15 years for starving her child to death yet starving 8 dogs to death does not even warrant 1 day in prison!