5 years? Are you kidding me. What a joke. Animals are not equivalent to humans.
And there they are! The Free Republic Animal Abuse Caucus!
Everyone: there are members of this forum that see absolutely nothing wrong with what this man did.
The dog is his property and he should do whatever he wants with his property.
Conservatives!
What’s disgusting is treating animals like humans.
If he did this to a human it would be 5 years maybe less.
Any Freeper who finds nothing wrong with this is not a person that I would want to know. Animal abusers are subhuman scum. Animals have feelings just as humans do.
I have three dogs & a cat. If anyone harmed my fur babies, they would bitterly regret it.
Another fact: Anyone who would harm an animal would also harm a person. Many murderers abused & killed animals before moving on to killing people.
Anyone who would laugh this off is disgusting and immoral.
This reminds me of a story coming out of Iowa about 20 years ago (because I have relatives from Iowa talking about this). Three 18 year old high school students broke into an animal shelter and killed 16 cats with baseball bats. The parents were upset that the punishment was probation and community service.
There’s no shortage of people, especially your rancher and farmer types, that think there is absolutely nothing wrong with going out and killing anything and everything that isn’t livestock. Of course it’s fun, it a great family activity. They think the only thing those 18 year olds should be liable for is the front door that they kicked in and any other incidental property damage. Pretty sick people.
What this person did was categorically wrong. That doesn't mean everyone has to agree on what his punishment should have been.
The dog is his property and he should do whatever he wants with his property.
If this dog owner was hungry and needed a meal, could he have humanely slaughtered his dog and eaten it?
Because that wouldn't be cruelty, right? And the dog was his property, right?
The distinction between the two scenarios is relevant, IMHO. When we ascribe "rights" to animals, it can be a slippery slope.
Myself, I'm a dog-lover, so I'd never commit either of those acts against my property.
But I can accept the fact that other property owners might have different opinions...
Sometimes, it’s a doggone shame that people are so doggedly dogmatic...
I hope you’re being sarcastic
You can tell a lot about a person's character by the way they treat and think about those who are weaker than themselves.
I keep a mental list.
They are the people I would not piss on, if they were on fire.