It isn’t about the bees. It is about the business and life they took away from the owners of the bees.
It is also about the crimes they will commit in the future. Unchecked, they will move on to worse crimes because they only consider their own sick and perverted whims and do not care about others.
It isn’t mercy to leave them in that state. If you are concerned at all for their future, they need a painful intervention to change the course of their lives.
The comments I’m referring to are the ones suggesting the perps be lit on fire, placed in a glass box with killer bees, etc.
I’m very aware of what is facing these beekeepers. I happen to be one. What will probably happen is that they’ll purchase new nucleus hives or packages, and reuse their salvageable equipment. Total cost for new bees will be somewhere in the range of $6,000 to $8,000. They’ll be up and running for this season. Getting bees for this season will be more challenging given the timing, but money talks and they should be able to recover.
As for the miscreants, Of course they deserve to be punished and stupid should hurt. There is a difference between righteous punishment and torture or execution.