Sorta my point too. It's bad. It's worth noting and looking to see if there is a track record for these boys. Any indication that they are future serial killers or are going to shoot up a school? OK.
In the old days, they should be taken home to fathers that whoop their buts (yes spanking or other harsh punishment).
I hate that cops and detectives and courts are going to used for this type of "enforcement" of the law.
We’re on the same page.
One thing for me too, is that your world view determines how you interpret this sort of thing. Those that see animals as “almost human” imagine the boys having their sensibilities. That is, a person that would do this to an animal is just a serial killer in training.
But those of us who were raised on farms or otherwise understand that animals and humans are nowhere near the same thing, understand how a boy, with our sensibilities, would not equate the action with doing it to a human any more than they would equate carving their initials in a tree to carving them in a person’s forehead.
It doesn’t make what the boys did right, but I suspect a lot of animals have sacrificed life and limb teaching boys empathy. I remember, in sixth grade, getting a BB gun and shooting a robin right in the chest. It fell out of the tree in front of me and I felt TERRIBLE. Never did it again. Never even thought about doing it again. And 50+ years later it leaves a mark.
But now, I didn’t need jail time.