Posted on 12/22/2005 10:49:03 AM PST by aculeus
A man who was caught on CCTV repeatedly driving his car over a cat has been spared jail.
Barry Haggerty, a 58-year-old chartered surveyor from Buckinghamshire, claimed he ran over the cat 11 times because he wanted to put it out of its misery.
Haggerty was heading for work when he ran over Mixey the cat on April 12. He returned to the scene and drove forwards and backwards over the animals as it thrashed around in pain, eventually killing it.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and was sentenced by Milton Keynes Magistrates to a period of imprisonment of six weeks, suspended for 52 weeks. He was also ordered to do 60 hours' community service and to pay the prosecution costs of £4,182.
Dean Price, the defence solicitor, said Haggerty was "an animal lover" who was trying to put the cat out of its misery and had reacted with "horror and remorse" when he was shown CCTV footage of what he had done.
He told police he thought he had killed the cat outright when he first hit it but he returned and ran it over a further 10 times just to be sure.
The four-minute CCTV footage showed Haggerty's silver Renault Clio drive forwards and backwards over the one-year-old tortoiseshell female 10 times over a two-and-a-half-minute period.
The cat could clearly be seen thrashing its legs and tail in agony. Haggerty is seen to get out of his car at one stage to assess the state of the cat.
"I feel really awful," Haggerty said. "My only thoughts were how can I stop this animal suffering. The only thing I had was the car. I thought I was acting in the best interests of the cat."
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So why are you addressing that to me?
"P.S. - Has the Rover passed anywhere near your location on the planet Mars?"
I don't live on planet mars. I live on planet "I haven't had TV in almost nine years." I am not part of the brainwashed masses. Talking animals in movies and TV shows have not jaded my perceptions. I see "dumb animals" as all men did for aproximately 99.9% of human history - before Bambi.
It doesn't take "Bambi" to understand that animals feel pain.
"It doesn't take "Bambi" to understand that animals feel pain."
You are right. But it does take "Bambi" to brainwash people into believing they do feel pain.
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