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Driver who ran over cat 11 times spared prison
The Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | December 22, 2005 | Unsigned

Posted on 12/22/2005 10:49:03 AM PST by aculeus

A man who was caught on CCTV repeatedly driving his car over a cat has been spared jail.

Barry Haggerty, a 58-year-old chartered surveyor from Buckinghamshire, claimed he ran over the cat 11 times because he wanted to put it out of its misery.

Haggerty was heading for work when he ran over Mixey the cat on April 12. He returned to the scene and drove forwards and backwards over the animals as it thrashed around in pain, eventually killing it.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and was sentenced by Milton Keynes Magistrates to a period of imprisonment of six weeks, suspended for 52 weeks. He was also ordered to do 60 hours' community service and to pay the prosecution costs of £4,182.

Dean Price, the defence solicitor, said Haggerty was "an animal lover" who was trying to put the cat out of its misery and had reacted with "horror and remorse" when he was shown CCTV footage of what he had done.

He told police he thought he had killed the cat outright when he first hit it but he returned and ran it over a further 10 times just to be sure.

The four-minute CCTV footage showed Haggerty's silver Renault Clio drive forwards and backwards over the one-year-old tortoiseshell female 10 times over a two-and-a-half-minute period.

The cat could clearly be seen thrashing its legs and tail in agony. Haggerty is seen to get out of his car at one stage to assess the state of the cat.

"I feel really awful," Haggerty said. "My only thoughts were how can I stop this animal suffering. The only thing I had was the car. I thought I was acting in the best interests of the cat."

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright


TOPICS: Extended News; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: kittyping
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To: the OlLine Rebel
*You* automatically cry out in pain if you're slashed; so somehow, that's *just* an "autoMATED" response that has nothing to do w/feelings?

The crying out comes WITH the feelings. It is merely a response of your human machine. You do not make a conscious decision to do it. It is part of your human machines defensive mechanism. And, unlike animals, we can make a conscious decision to suppress it, if need be. Animals don’t.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Why cry out? What's the purpose? If the animal feels nothing, there's no point in crying out! For crying out loud....

There are several beneficial reasons for quickly crying out, actually. Heck, watch March of the Penguins.

A cat is most definitely a living being; a car is not. I love both, but I'm well aware it's my CAT that experiences pain, whereas my inANIMate car does not.

You believe your cat experiences pain, but being a human and not a cat, you cannot know, and both the cat and the car can be programmed to scream. You lower the bar too much. The bar is not “being alive”. Plant’s are alive.

141 posted on 12/22/2005 1:36:23 PM PST by RobRoy
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To: RobRoy

Surely you don`t really believe animals are incapable of feeling pain? If that was true, why will a dog cower in fear from someone who beats it?


142 posted on 12/22/2005 1:43:42 PM PST by chessplayer
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To: aculeus

My grandfather use to do that to snakes in the road, not to put them out of their misery but, to make sure they were dead.


143 posted on 12/22/2005 1:49:27 PM PST by wolfcreek
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To: aculeus

A few years ago, I saw a duck and a bunch of ducklings in the cement median of a highway during rush hour. There was no way they were getting out of there alive. I gavem brief consideration to sliding over and performing a quick mercy killing. I didn't but there were a bunch of dead ducks on the median the next day.


144 posted on 12/22/2005 2:06:19 PM PST by cyclotic (Cub Scouts-Teach 'em young to be men, and politically incorrect in the process)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

I'd come back with a line about children but I'd get in trouble,
Again.


145 posted on 12/22/2005 2:07:25 PM PST by Joe Boucher (an enemy of islam)
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To: chessplayer

"Surely you don`t really believe animals are incapable of feeling pain? If that was true, why will a dog cower in fear from someone who beats it?"

Is it fear, or self preservation and anticipation from what it has learned.

I believe an animals brain receives the same sort of impulses that a human brain does if you step on it's toe. I believe it is the conscious interpretation of that signal that is different. In humans, it is called pain. In animals, it is pure stimulus, response. And it is often what keeps them alive - which is the whole point.


146 posted on 12/22/2005 2:11:47 PM PST by RobRoy
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To: RobRoy
I agree with you completely on there being a value difference between humans and animals.

Animals are around for various purposes on this world. Meat, companionship as pets, workers as draft animals or protection as guard dogs etc, or just fitting in as parts of God's grand plan.

Animals don't have souls, but they DO experience physical pain and suffering just as we do. To cause an animal to suffer needlessly is cruel. Recognition of that cruelty is what makes us different from animals. A cat will toy with a mouse and torture it without any thought of how the mouse feels about the situation or implications of "right and wrong".

Many animals DO also show some evidence of limited emotions. A dog will show all the signs of being lonely or sad when he's left alone, joy when you return, fearfulness, remorse when he knows he's been misbehaving, and even a sense of humor at times.

If your experience with the animal world is limited to chickens, you just might have an incomplete view of the world from which to base your opinions on what animals are capable or incapable of experiencing.

147 posted on 12/22/2005 2:13:28 PM PST by Wissa (I despise the liberal media.)
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To: RobRoy
I hit a robin once with my car

Heartless bast**d!

(Giggle) Stupid damn robins all fly low over the roadways. They're at the bottom of the bird gene pool for intelligence.

148 posted on 12/22/2005 2:27:20 PM PST by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: Wissa

Even a small animal is sensitive to its owner's emotions and pain. Our family dog would sit by my bedside (when I was a child) when I was sick, and wail. There is definite psychic interaction between animals and humans. I believe animals have some genetic, God-given capacity to understand human emotional needs so that they can interact well with humans, which helps guarantee their survival.


149 posted on 12/22/2005 2:38:33 PM PST by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: Wissa

Actually, I think animals "appear" to suffer as humans do, but they don't have the consciousness to experience it as pain as we do.


150 posted on 12/22/2005 3:57:18 PM PST by RobRoy
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To: Ciexyz

I was in South Dakota a few years ago and I came across a patch of road where about a hundred Pooks (I think that is what they are called) were congregating on both shoulders. They are the grey waterfoul with the red eyes. We have them here in Seattle. Anyway, there were about 12 dead ones in and around the road. When I passed through they ran across the street and I hit at least four. They weren't too bright either.

I DID slow down because I didn't want to damage my rental car...


151 posted on 12/22/2005 4:02:01 PM PST by RobRoy
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To: aculeus

I think, folks, that this was a well-intentioned pu**y (no pun intended) who didn't have the stones to get out of the vehicle and do the right thing for the poor cat.....and ran over it repeatedly instead rather than soil his soft little hands.


152 posted on 12/22/2005 4:03:34 PM PST by RightOnline
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To: RobRoy
"First, the word "agony" implies pain, something that can only relate to human consciousness."

Wrong! Animals are clearly capable to experiencing pain and feeling it consciously. Human consciousness is not by any means the only consciousness necessary to perceive pain.

Anatomists used to nail the four feet of a cat or a dog to a board and proceed to disect the living animal in front of medical students in the 1700s. The excuse was that the animals had no consciousness and could not perceive pain when they clearly were in....agony.

153 posted on 12/22/2005 4:46:58 PM PST by Irene Adler
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To: RobRoy

The only people I have no empathy for, are people are cruel to animals...inotherwords.. inbreds.


154 posted on 12/22/2005 6:25:49 PM PST by Fawn
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To: aculeus

I like cats. But... There's been quite a few times in my life when I had to put some poor animal out of its misery when it had run afoul of some piece of man-made equipment. It's not a pleasant thing to have to do but you gotta do it.

A family hit a deer once in their car and stood there watching it thrash about with a broke back. Poor critter was trying to run away on its front two legs. I stopped my car, took the .38 from under my seat and dispatched it even as one of the kids was saying 'Please Daddy, don't let him kill the deer!'.

I come across a pigeon on a city street once who had been hit by a car. He was screwed up but still flapping around in the middle of the road and its mate was trying to stay with it even though cars were driving past. I walked out and stepped on its head (much to the horror of many bystanders) and then picked it up and placed it on the sidewalk so its mate could mourn over it without getting run over itself.

I don't think this guy should be put in jail at all. He probably could've done a more efficient job but just damn. You can't be putting somebody in jail for trying to put an animal out of its misery.


155 posted on 12/22/2005 6:25:52 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Irene Adler
Anatomists used to nail the four feet of a cat or a dog to a board and proceed to disect the living animal in front of medical students in the 1700s.

Even worse, surgeons operated on human infants claiming -- stupidly -- that their immature nervous systems were incapable of feeling pain. For that matter boy infants are probably still circumcised without anesthesia for the same reason.

156 posted on 12/22/2005 7:16:19 PM PST by aculeus
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To: Prodigal Son
I don't think this guy should be put in jail at all.

Agreed. In reading the thread it's apparent that we certainly have, er, diversity at FR.

157 posted on 12/22/2005 7:18:00 PM PST by aculeus
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To: aculeus
Driver who ran over cat 11 times spared prison

He should've been given a bronze star!

158 posted on 12/22/2005 7:18:58 PM PST by sauropod (Walk with the King today and be a blessing.)
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To: jmq

That's funny!


159 posted on 12/22/2005 7:21:35 PM PST by sauropod (Walk with the King today and be a blessing.)
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To: aculeus
Barry Haggerty, a 58-year-old chartered surveyor from Buckinghamshire, claimed he ran over the cat 11 times because he wanted to put it out of its misery.

I can see it now.

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screeeech)

Cat: "Meow"

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screeeech)

Cat:"Meow"

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screeech)

Cat: "Meow"

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screeech)

Cat: "Meow"

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screech)

Cat: "Meow"

Haggerty: (slam, vroom, vroom, screeeech)

Cat:

Haggerty (to shop owner): "I'd like to return this cat."

160 posted on 12/22/2005 7:24:06 PM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all.)
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