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."
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
LOL!
Video link?
Sorry. Just kidding.
The French car did it.
Cheap a$$ european compacts. This would never happened with a F350 or Hummer.
9 lives + 2 more to make sure = 11
I guess two lives more than a happy meal.
This guy deserves to be run over 11 times. Bastard.
He should at least eat what he kills.
What a maroon.
I think considering the context, he was punished OK. If I had done something like that, I'd hope it was OK enough to take it to a vet; if not, I might think of using an axe or pick on the poor cat. Just to get it over w/quickly and a bit more cleanly. Smushing him w/a 2-ton car w/wide wheels is not at all clean and nice.
meeOW!!!
I kind of feel for the guy. I once accidentally hit a rabbit on the road and in my rearview mirror I could see it thrashing around...ouch.
Earth to DA: After three times, it's personal.
Audio:
Me-*crunch*-ow ow ow-*crunch*-ow ow ow ow ow ow ow-*crunch*-ow ow ow- *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch* - *crunch*-...
"...and had reacted with "horror and remorse" when he was shown CCTV footage of what he had done."
Like Tookie Williams?
Run over? He deserves to be drug around a parking lot a few times himself just to see how it feels. See if this SOB would ever run over anything again.
He must have been really mad at his cat.
How many times did you run over the rabbit? I bet not 11.
Well, when he is at the end of his rope, I hope somebody is around with a dump truck - one with a transmission problem.
I like cats just fine, but do you really think this guy deserves to be run over 11 times? For crying out loud, it was a cat. Whether it was run over once or 11 times, dead is dead. Chances are that he did shorten the length of the suffering the cat had to endure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.