Posted on 12/08/2004 12:45:36 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
SKOWHEGAN -- A 26-year-old Fairfield man was sentenced to 18 months behind bars Tuesday for beating a 4-month-old wolf-hybrid puppy to death with his fists.
James Mayhew pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty in Somerset County Superior Court. Superior Court Chief Justice Nancy Mills sentenced Mayhew to five years in prison with all but 18 months suspended. Mayhew will be on probation for four years after he is released.
Kennebec and Somerset County District Attorney Evert N. Fowle said Tuesday afternoon that his office treats animal cruelty cases seriously because studies show a link between abuse of animals and violence against humans.
"People who would abuse or torture innocent animals are people who would do the same (to humans) under the right circumstances," Fowle said.
It was the second time in less than a week that a prison sentence was handed down for the relatively rare felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty in Fowle's jurisdiction.
In Augusta last week, Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar sentenced a Randolph man to four years behind bars for running over and killing his girlfriend's pregnant cat.
Jabar said the act amounted to domestic abuse because it was an attempt to control his girlfriend. One witness described the man "howling and laughing," before killing the cat.
In the Mayhew case, Fowle said there was no link to domestic violence. The Fairfield man was apparently upset because the puppy urinated in his apartment.
"He beat the dog to death because it urinated inside his residence, but the dog urinated because it was scared to death of him because of past abusive treatment," Fowle said.
Police said the puppy was beaten over a period of two months and died on July 31.
An autopsy concluded the puppy had a broken rib, a severely bruised lung and bruised muscles around the head and ears.
Police said at the time of Mayhew's arrest, a veterinarian who performed the autopsy concluded the puppy either bled to death or suffocated on its own blood.
Mayhew had no other pets or animals at his Mountain Avenue home. He apparently had seen the dog advertised for sale and bought it at eight or six weeks old.
And most conservatives can see the difference between a dog soiling your rug and one attacking you. It's usually liberals that fail to see things in context.
So you'd be cool with making rapists pay the fathers of virgin victims a lump sum of cash instead of criminal prosecution as well?
Well, duh.
Go back and read my post 148 to you again... your arrogance shows.. .you seem to think that no one but you can draw another logical conclusion.. several people here have pointed out differing conclusions here ad nausem...
Plus you still play that comparison of property to life....
that is a logic that is flawed... if you consider animals property what keeps you from considering a wife or a child the same... Just because they are human? that does not make a difference it is only a living creature then... Human being are in essence animals. We differ only is species.... We breath air, we are carbon based life forms, we live and die. it is all the same.
ping
AACK! You're right...sorry about that. It just came across the opposite way to me at first. Looks like I need to clean my glasses too!
We should seek to shun such nutballs, not lock them up for a felony for killing a wolf.
You and others here see the difference between pets and pests. But others who use the same laws do not.
They are the ones who have given us a legal gay marriage when laws did not prohibit it.
And don't forget, the bible also says "Blessed is he that bashes the heads of his enemy's children against the rocks."
So, that means I can go smack the crap out of the neighbors rotten kid ;) /heavy sarcasm, REALLY!
In college, I had a Creative Writing professor who instilled in me the notion that if a reader cannot understand what is written, it is always the writer's fault.
Sorry. :0)
The difference is that humans are made to understand, are the true legal residents with whom the laws actually apply, and have souls.
It's pretty simple, see?
Tell ya what darlin'....
I have a great big building full of people that we have locked up cuz of stuff like this...
You say shun? Fine...We'll just let them go to move into your neighborhood (I mean, you can do all the shunnin' that ya want then!).
BTW, Please send your address ;)
Blah blah blah, go peddle your shit elsewhere.
Knew that, just trying to prove a point that we don't follow the Bible's pronouncements on property rights.
I don't know if I'll buy that - we've had animal cruelty laws for a long time. But 18 months ?! Ridiculous.
Note, however, some Freepers got really mad at me when I objected to being called my dog's "parent" instead of "owner".
I don't believe in animal cruelty but some folks take that way too far.
LOLOLOLOL!!!
Tell us what you really think, StoneCold.
Sounds like a hate crime argument to me. Should we punish hunters who kill for food yet enjoy the sport involved in killing? The problem is one person's necessity(Hunter) is another person's murder(PETA).
When I see stuff like this I am more concerned about the increasing arguments for animal rights. And like it or not, these kind of rulings set precedents.
I agree that what he did is sick but 18 months in prison is inconsistent and silly when we have people convicted of vehicular homicide who serve only a few months.
Prison is way to good a punishment for such a cruel, heinous crime.
My teachers said the same, but I didn't always agree! LOL Sometimes, the reader is simply sloppy...like I was!
See, now we have a mutual admiration society after all! *grin*
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