Posted on 04/20/2009 11:55:12 AM PDT by Chet 99
By Matt Guillermo, KESQ.com Digital Content Director mguillermo@kesq.com
ANZA - A man who told authorities his horse was attacked by dogs was arrested after deputies found that the horse, instead, was beaten with a sledgehammer.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, the horse's owner, Jack Ziniuk, called deputies Sunday afternoon to "put down" his horse, saying that it had been badly injured by attacking dogs and that it was suffering from seizures.
Deputies and, later, Animal Control officers investigating the horse found that it had been struck several times in the head with a sledgehammer and, then, decapitated with a chainsaw.
Deputies later located the chainsaw and sledgehammer allegedly used. Investigators also found the horse's head which had been used to feed the man's dogs.
Ziniuk, 64, was arrested for animal cruelty and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. AddThis Social Bookmark Button
And you can’t post a logical reply, either.
Goodbye.
I am completely saying that.
And yes, a rat and a horse are both animals that are fellow mammals. Are cattle not kind and loving, as well? I grew up on a farm and had horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and more, so I know about taking care of animals but I also know animals are property that can be killed when needed.
The guy killed his horse and let his dogs eat it. Read the dang story. Or are you against animals eating animals, meaning you hate the entire animal kingdom for what has always been?
I don't think this old guy was doing anything that he wanted to do, he was simply faced with a situation that overwhelmed him.
The horse was probably starving. He probably doesn't own a gun, and if he did and used it on the horse, they'd probably be charging him with a gun crime right now.
We all love horses. The fact is, horses cost a lot of money to take care of, and if your source of income has evaporated, there are no good solutions.
Slaughterhouses are a necessary evil, when it comes to horses.
What can you do with a horse who is thirty-something years old that you've owned for twenty and can barely walk anymore?
Even if you have a vet put it down, what in the heck are you going to do with the thousand-pound carcass?
You can't just take a shovel and dig a hole in your backyard.
Scum of the earth. Never trust a person who will harm an animal. They will harm YOU without the blink of an eye. Thank God my mother taught us that.
Scum of the earth. Never trust a person who will harm an animal. They will harm YOU without the blink of an eye. Thank God my mother taught us that.
I'm afraid if you check the law in most cases you can do exactly that. Live stock are presumed to be expendable.If this horse actually had been attacked as the man said and was suffering and all the guy had was a sledge hammer that was the humane thing to do The same fate happens to thousands of baby seals every year.
One more for the sake of comedy. I can’t post what I logically think of a person like you.
Gee this is very intelligent. lol!!
Lets go beat animals to death so we can feel like a big man.
You are making a lot of assumptions about the motivation of this horse owner. It just might be that he was being as humane as possible, under the circumstances.
The guy killed his horse and let his dogs eat it. Read the dang story. Or are you against animals eating animals, meaning you hate the entire animal kingdom for what has always been?
Yes, horses and dogs are “fellow mammals.” Do you think we’re all equal? If not, do you think humans are a little higher on the ladder? I think we are. And because of that, I think we have the responsibility to be good caretakers, particularly of those animals that we nurture and care for and treat like pets. How cruel does someone have to be to beat a defenseless animal to death?
You may “own” an animal but that surelydoesn’t give you the right to abuse it. If humanity and compassion don’t kick in, then the laws need to. That’s what good laws are for - to protect the defenseless and the innocent from those who want to harm them.
Did this guy need to kill his horse? I really doubt it. But even if he did, he could have done it in a way that didn’t bring such suffering to the poor animal. He beat his horse with a sledge hammer! How can you support that?
If he was trying to put the horse down to end its suffering (IF), then his action is somewhat understandable. He should still have found a more humane way to do it than beating it to death with a sledgehammer. Doing such a thing for any reason besides the desire to put the animal down should definitely be punished.
Ownership of an animal does not give a person a mandate to treat it as cruelly as they wish. God’s law requires us to act as good stewards of God’s creatures and treat animals humanely, and as others in this thread have pointed out, people who are cruel to animals typically have equally little regard for human life.
Is the slaughter of unborn humans a greater injustice? Of course. However, being outraged by one does not exclude being outraged by the other, and one can work for the cessation and punishment of both injustices. It’s not an either/or.
Sorry, I wouldn’t judge him to make you happy.
Have a good one.
A stray cat had “adopted” me while living in a boarding house at college. I rigged up a place for it under the stairs with straw, blanket, a light bulb heater for the winter, fed it, cleaned its home, etc. Lived with us for many months.
He got hit by a car and one of the other tenants boyfriends found it in our yard dying. They called the humane society and they said they couldn’t help. The boyfriend drove to his dad’s farm to get a gun, but in the time it took him to go and come back the cat had died.
I found out when I came home, and trying to hold back my tears was yelling at him - there’s a shovel RIGHT THERE! Why didn’t you just put him out of his misery!!??
And I am NOT of the opinion that just because an animal is someone’s property you can do ANYTHING you want with them. However, if this guy did as he said to dispatch the horse as quickly and as best as he was able - well, that is a different story.
“The guy killed his horse and let his dogs eat it. Read the dang story. Or are you against animals eating animals, meaning you hate the entire animal kingdom for what has always been?”
It’s how he killed the horse that’s the problem for me. He used a sledgehammer. He had other options - use a firearm, call a DVM to have the horse put down, etc, etc.
If he wants to kill the horse, fine. But at least have the common sense to do it in a way that will spare the horse from possible suffering.
Easy! that might be all he had!!
It is? Maybe in your neck of the woods.......
“Easy! that might be all he had!!”
Weak. All it takes is a phone call to ask a neighbor for a firearm he can use...
Before the invention of the captive bolt gun, using a sledgehammer was the standard way to kill a large animal like a horse or a cow. Other than a large-caliber gun, like a shotgun loaded with slugs, it really is the safest and most humane way to go. And, frankly, shooting a slug into a horse’s skull at close range might not be the smartest thing you can do.
You sure can’t reach around and cut it’s throat without stunning it first. The animal is a lot bigger and stronger than you, and can kill you as it is thrashing around. You have to stun it first. For centuries, the sledgehammer has been the right tool for that job. I know it is not pleasant, but that is the way it’s done.
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