I'd like to see you try!
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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Drowned it, or wrung it's neck?
Twice is usually enough. At least that's what I've heard.
My guess is that you're working from a different definition of "pain" than I am.
I do not understand statements like that.
Exactly. They can give the impression that they feel pain, but so do characters in video games when you "smack 'em" or shoot 'em. But they don't really.
I believe the animals brain is quite aware of what is stimulating his nervous system and responds with a pre-programmed response. I also believe animals can "learn". But I do not believe they "feel" in the way we apply the word to humans. They "feel" like you car "feels" when the check engine light comes on. It is a pre-programmed response originating from the brain (cpu) in response to an electrical impulse from a sensor (nerve ending), and that is all.
It would be unnerving if every time your check engine light came on, part of the programming cased a digitally stored recording of a womans blood curdling scream to come over the stereo speaker system. But it wouldn't really mean your car felt anything.
"Here's a little experiment to try to test your hypothesis. Light a cigarette and tape it onto a 6' stick. Sneak up behind a pitbull and hold the lit cigarette against his rump until it starts to burn into the flesh.
Get back to us and let us know if it showed any indication of feeling pain."
See my post 105.
"Wow....I hope you're a rare breed."
Like you, I'm one of a kind! 8^>
That's how we used to make sail cats. Poor man's frisby.
Fawn,
You just don't understand! This man HAD to run over the cat AT LEAST 11 times....How else do you get the meat tenderized enough for the stew?
I hope you get all clothes for Christmas.
Are you saying by your post that animals don't feel pain?
Their distress is not analytical - oh my I have a broken leg and I may have trouble walking in the future - but animals do feel pain just as we do. Did you believe otherwise?
Your understanding of animals' minds is not based on facts.
Gee.The last cat I ran over only needed one pass. Not ten more.
Ouch! ROTFL!!
sw
My wife was taught to use a plastic gallon milk jug at 4H.
Cut off the bottom and enough of the top to fit a chicken's neck. Tie it to a clothes line. Thread the chicken's neck through the opening in the milk jug. Slit the throat with a razor.
They even gave her a chicken to practice on. I think she was 12. I wonder if 4H clubs do that sort of practical training today....
Er, I don't think he'd be getting back to us after that :-)
See post #105......it is quite...ummm...interesting (for the lack of a better word).
That's about the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.
I'd like to see you try!
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