Free Republic

An Austin man who is accused of beating a turtle to death with a hammer told authorities he was acting in self-defense, his arrest-warrant affidavit says. Terry Washington, 55, told police that the turtle lunged at him and repeatedly tried to bite him after it had been hooked on a fishing line on the edge of Lady Bird Lake, KVUE-TV reports. According to the affidavit, he said he killed the turtle in self-defense and in order to get the fishing hook back, then dragged it under a bridge to get it out of the view of passers-by. The June 21...

...A jogger named Geoffrey Frank saw the blood and the action that drew it. In a graphic video he posted to Facebook, it is possible to hear the meaty crack of the hammer against the turtle shell over Frank’s horrified murmurs of protest. Frank turned a corner on the trail that runs near Lady Bird Lake to see, as he told Austin’s KXAN-TV, Washington swing the tool down upon the turtle’s shell. On his second loop, the turtle was dead. It was “sick,” Frank said to KXAN. He watched as the man “smashed it to death with a hammer.” The...

FONTANA >> Jack Sparrow is recovering from methamphetamine overdose, but he’s not the fictional pirate of the Caribbean. He’s a small Chihuahua from Fontana. On July 5, Jack’s owner brought him to the Inland Valley Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Center in Upland, police said in a news release Monday. Jack’s owner, identified by police as 21-year-old Isaiah Nathaniel Sais, from Fontana, allegedly told doctors he believed Jack may have ingested methamphetamine. And according to test results, he was right. Jack tested positive for the street drug known as “Crank”, according to the news release. But Sais left the vet’s office...

Over Memorial Day weekend, the internet has been exploding with comments, articles, and rants related to the death of Harambe, the 17-year-old silverback gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. While the entire situation was harrowing, terrifying, and tragic, what many of these vocalized opinions reveal about our culture is infinitely troubling. There’s not a legitimate debate over whether the little boy who crawled and fell into Harambe’s habitat would have died if the gorilla hadn’t been shot. CNN reported: Officials made the decision to shoot Harambe because the boy was in “imminent danger.” They feared a tranquilizer would take too long...

Monday, Houston veterinarian Kristen Lindsey appeared in court to address the complaint against her, according to Lorris Jones with the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. Lindsey is accused of killing a cat in 2015 and then bragging about it on Facebook. The social media post shows Lindsey holding up the cat by the arrow she shot it with. Along with the image of the dead cat, Lindsey posted “My first bow kill, LOL.” The State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners was in attendance at the court. Critics want the board to pull her veterinary license.

Why are Turkey’s dogs committing suicide? Turkey’s problem of dog abandonment first emerged in coastal summer home communities, with people casting off dogs before heading back to cities at the end of the season. The phenomenon has now spilled over to urban areas as a result mostly of impulse purchases from pet shops — often to reward children for good grades or as presents for Valentine’s Day and wedding anniversaries — with little thought about the animals’ long-term care. The dogs — most of them purebred and trained — are either left in animal shelters or simply thrown out in...

A 20-year-old horse is recovering after being shot more than 100 times with paintballs. Lily is recovering at the New Bolton Center in Chester County, Pennsylvania. "In 15 years, I've never seen another paintball case," New Bolton Center veterinarian Dr. Rose Nolen-Walston said. "You can tell she's a sweetie and you can tell she's happy to be getting some food and some care." Omega Horse Rescue's Kelly Smith found Lily at the New Holland Horse Sale Stables in Lancaster County on Monday after the horse auctions. They found no sign of an owner and believed her to be abandoned at...

Famed “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan is defending himself amid an investigation by Los Angeles County animal control officials involving a pot-bellied pig that was attacked by a French bulldog mix during a TV episode. Then they will decide whether the canine-on-swine-related violence rises to the level of a crime, officials said Friday. Millan, however, said no crime occurred and that the entire episode is much ado about nothing. In a statement, National Geographic Wild does not dispute that the French bulldog mix, named Simon, attacked the pig during training. The dog reportedly bit the pig in the ear, drawing blood....

An opossum was found in California on Friday after being shot in the head and torso with what appeared to be crossbow arrows. Riverside County Department of Animal Services were amazed by the opossum's survival after it was found trying to remove the arrows near an intersection in the city's La Sierra neighborhood. [snip] The opossum survived the surgery and is now recovering at the animal hospital. [snip] The city's department of animal services has began an animal cruelty investigation into the incident.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when Planned Parenthood magnanimously offered to forego payment for its "donations" of baby body parts you know, out of the goodness of its heart? Well, maybe its heart is still a few sizes too small, because the abortion giant is still profiting hand over fist from this arrangement. Here's one of the dirty little secrets of abortion dealers: When an abortion is over, the growing baby has not magically disappeared. There's still a little boy or girl lying on a tray or in a machine. Abortion businesses know this. They employ "products of...

AKRON, Ohio - An Akron teen who was charged in 2014 for kicking a cat and posting video of the incident on social media was arrested Wednesday and is now due in court. [....] Mitchell was charged with cruelty to a companion animal and was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 15, 2014 after a video of him abusing a cat went viral and prompted newsnet5.com to contact Akron Police to ask what they were doing about it.

On the eve of the Obama administration’s deal to pour $150 billion into the coffers of soon-to-be nuclear Iran, we should consider carefully the character of the government with which they have struck a bargain. [....] The ubiquity of beheadings and other horrific violence seems to have had a dangerous anesthetizing effect on all of us. So perhaps some Americans would better understand the sociopathic nature of the regime we’re promoting by getting a glimpse into its attitude on dogs. Its war on dogs. Take a look at this video from the Iranian town of Shiraz, which seems to have...

The outrage over Cecil's death is absurd when you think of the other, bigger problems which people are happy to ignore There is a new, pointless ride opening in town designed to give users an instant but ephemeral rush. It isn’t the slide down the ugly, unnecessary Olympic tower, but the convenient and free outrage bus currently stopping on your street and picking up passengers for Cecil, the beautiful dead lion. Out of any and all proportion to the severity of his dreadful act of animal murder, the dentist who killed Cecil has become an international focal point of hate...

A South Pittsburg man found dead in North Alabama was previously charged with animal cruelty after allegedly punting a cat "like a football." Dejion "D.J." Roberson, 21, was found dead in an isolated area of County Road 208 in Bridgeport. The sheriff's office determined the death was a homicide. Roberson was arrested on Christmas Eve 2013 in McMinn County. Several witnesses saw him carrying a cat by the neck and kicking it like a soccer ball, according to an incident report.

Poultry producer Foster Farms suspended five employees Wednesday after an animal-rights group released undercover video showing live birds being slammed upside-down into shackles, punched and plucked. The suspended employees were either directly involved in the abuse or failed to report it to management, the California-based company said in a statement released through a public relations firm. “The behavior of the individuals in this video is inappropriate and counter to our stringent animal welfare standards, procedures and policies,” the statement said.

The URL is a link to a facebook pic that is not mine and is not me. Sorry, I don't know how else to do this. I saw a very disturbing photo of a young man abusing a dog..and I want to see if we can find the man,,if we can identify him. Can someone help me with the ins and outs of posting the photo? It's beyond the pale,,there is no blood,,not graphic in a gory sense,,but very sadistic. I want to catch the creep AND the creep who took the photo.

These tweets are literally posted one on top the other in pro-abortion Democrat Ted Deutch’s Twitter feed: ***(Check out tweets at link)*** The practice of animal crushing is a sexual fetish of the sickest kind. About his introduction of the PACT Act, Rep. Deutch wrote: Too many animals are subjected to unfathomable cruelty and abuse, out of no fault of their own and no recourse for protection. These inhumane acts have no place in our society. House Foreign AffairsYet, incomprehensibly, particularly by comparison – and on the very same day as he introduced his animal cruelty bill – Deutch, pictured...

Abandoned pet found on road with broken bones and deep bite marks Thrown from car after being used as bait for blood-thirsty killer dogs Somehow avoided traffic, but still broke leg and punctured lung Rescued by two animal lovers who took £3,000 loan to pay for his surgery Twisted dog-fighters got rid of a whippet used for baiting killer devil dogs by throwing it from a car at 50mph on a packed motorway. The cruel owners tossed the helpless dog out the window and on to the road surface of the M56 in Cheshire after it had already been badly...

By now, you’ve probably heard of Kristen Lindsey. She’s the veterinarian from Brenham who’s given more bad press to the state than Blue Bell after she posted a picture on Facebook of herself, smiling and holding an arrow with a dead cat on the end of it:

The problems are multiplying for the Texas veterinarian... "Current interests: Living my days to the fullest, finding the meaning of happiness, killing things or trying to kill things (animals, a full glass of whiskey, hangovers, etc)..."