"My name is Gato... you killed my father... prepare to die."
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
I think that people who harm animals on purpose(not accidents) should be electrocuted....
Had you personally bit off any of those chicken heads? Just asking.
Pussy.
"Some people eat people...and fetuses....what's your point?"
Well, Hitler gassed jews. That does not mean that workers at animal shelters should be treated as little hitlers.
My point is that, unlike PETA, I do not believe a boy is a dog is a cat. Animals are animals. They are not people and do not contain within them the same intrinsic value. They are "meat on the hoof".
"Had you personally bit off any of those chicken heads? Just asking."
8^>
No. I used a hatchet.
I thought you'd want to comment on this thread...don't ask me why....just thought of you....
"This guy deserves to be run over 11 times. Bastard."
His parentage really is not in question here... 8^>
A cat or dog can experience agony just as thoroughly as a human can. And it tends to have very similar psychological effects if the animal survives: anti-social behavior within its own species, severe aggression and/or fear, and very easily startled into expressing aggression/fear, just like humans with PTSD.
"Run over? He deserves to be drug around a parking lot a few times himself just to see how it feels."
How it feels to a human, or how it feels to a cat?
So you believe that an animal can be tortured or be made to suffer at the hands of humans ....whenever they feel like doing it and not be punished? You think that's ok?
I watch the animal cops shows sometimes. First, in cities with loads of poor people getting murdered every day, these cops are responding to animal issues. OK, but then they frequently arrest some extremely poor and ignorant person and take them away in cuffs for not getting their dog veterinary care. On occasion they arrest someone and then it turns out the dog was born with a bad leg, the person was innocent.
I would rather see the resources spent helping the people.
Lot's of folks don't have the guts to do that.
I agree entirely with you. This guy needs to be thankful he does not live in my town, I would surely put HIM out of HIS misery.
Some of these idiots, "its only a cat". So what??
I can think of human scum worth much less than the life of a maggott let alone a cat.
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but are you implying a cat doesn't feel pain? Again, sorry if I'm way off the mark.
A cat can feel pain just as a human can. How it would feel to a human to be drug around. I can stand a lot of things but cruelty to animals is not one of them.
BTW I have no doubt that an animal such as a cat experiences pain at a level quite similar to what a human experiences. I don't know why some think animals can't suffer or feel pain the same way we do.
I do not believe animals feel pain. I do not believe they are conscious. I believe they are little (or sometimes big) natural creatures with a brain that is a shadow of the human brain but, even more so, without the ability to interpret their surroundings with the same awareness of man, who was designed “in Gods image”, which animals were not.
Animals are “meat on the hoof”, which require no refrigeration as long as they are kept functioning. As a bonus, they also serve the same purpose for adults and children that a teddy bear serves for small children. If my wife dies before me, I will get a Golden Retriever and name him Chester. I will not get him “fixed”.
Although animals are not people, they do deserve to be treated humanely.
Cats are not "meat on the hoof".
They have been domesticated for both utilitarian purposes (pest and rodent control) and as companions/pets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.