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."
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"Boy I agree with you on that one, you ever try to eat a cat? They taste terrible even when you are starving!"
So anyway, this game warden sees a guy on the beach, snacking on a freshly fire-cooked seagull. He walks up to him and sez, “You are not allowed to kill Seagulls. I’m going to have to write you up.” and pulls out his ticket book. The guy gives a long story of destitution and starvation and further says he came upon the bird severely injured and close to death.
The officer takes pitty on him and says he’ll let him off this time but “if I ever see you eating another seagull I will throw the book at you.” The man thanks him and he turns to walk away. But as he starts off, his curiosity gets the best of him. He turns back around and asks, “I’ve always wondered; What does seagull taste like?”
The man scratches his chin and looks up thoughtfully and finally says, “Well…It’s sort of a cross between Bald Eagle and Spotted Owl.”
That's why people should carry guns. One shot in the head would have been more humane and much quicker than 11 times with a car.
Poor kitty. Now if it had been a snake....
Animals don't feel pain in your world, do they? Just asking because your post indicates that pain "can only relate to human consciousness."
A lot of - no, scratch that - ALL us from time to time are motivated by reasons exactly like the terrorists reasons. It does not make us terrorists. It makes up human beings.
Animals, especially mammals, are most certainly capable of feeling pain. I think the guy definitely went about this the wrong way since he could just put a pair of work gloves on and put the poor cat down.
Of course, his convinction was way over the line as well; it was only a cat.
Have two cats at my house currently being lazy pests, but oh well, that's the price we pay for demostic tranquility with the wife.
"I hit a robin once with my car -- the thing flew low and right in front of my fender -- saw the poor thing thrashing about on the roadway and I felt terrible.
I kept driving, tho'."
Heartless bast**d!
So you advocate electrocuting every slaughterhouse worker and chicken plant worker?
"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"
That's not the issue here. Its isn't like the guy just did it to get his jollies.
Personally, I think he did the right thing. I "assume" the cat was a goner anyway. Why let it lay there and suffer? As for it taking 11 tries: I haven't seen the video, but I frankly doubt if the cat was really alive after the 2nd or 3rd at worst.
I've read some wild things on this board but this is right near the top.
You might want to look up excerpts of Ken Ailabek's (sp?) book on the Soviet bio-weapon testing on animals at the Biopepriat facility. Based on the behavior of the chimps they were testing weapons on it is impossible to maintain your conclusion.
My cat can feel pain and I assure you is a perfectly conscious creature. As advanced anywhere near as a human, well no, but aware just the same. I can't for the life of me figure out what possible experience you might have had to believe what you do. Are you fully conscious?
"Although animals are not people, they do deserve to be treated humanely."
Have you ever watched a cat when it catches a bird or a mouse? They "play" with it (aka torture it) before they kill it.
Here's a little experiment to try to test your hypothesis. Light a cigarette and tape it onto a 6' stick. Sneak up behind a pitbull and hold the lit cigarette against his rump until it starts to burn into the flesh.
Get back to us and let us know if it showed any indication of feeling pain.
Now you can try to change what you said by coming on all indignant but the truth of the matter is you equated what this guy did to Tookie, else why bother mentioning him(Tookie) in your comment?
Face up to the consequences of your posts, it is the adult thing to do.
Defend your statement? You can't defend it, you said what you said and it speaks for itself no amount of lying and posturing and trying to turn it back on me will change it. You obviously are the Democrat because you are projecting your actions onto me. Have a nice day:).
"you ever try to eat a cat?"
No, but I have been known to eat P..., Never mind. :)
I'm not getting into symantics....you know what I mean....you're just trolling on me.
“Your belief on this is religious, which is fine, and most of us are happily eating loads of animals. But I don't agree with your belief that animals are sort of machines or teddy bears, both of which are man made. And in terms of awareness, your average farm animal may not be especially keen, but I do not want to test my awareness of surroundings against a grizzly bear, lion, etc that has decided to hunt me.”
Those latter machines have attachments that are actually better than some that come as standard equipment on human machines, which is what we all occupy. But your human machine has a superior CPU which gives it the ability to create it’s own superior attachments – like clubs, guns and F15s.
Thing is, I see the human machine as something you occupy, as opposed to who you are. It is like a shell or, as the Bible calls it, a “tent” you occupy which was specifically designed by its Creator to function quite nicely in the environment for which it was intended. And yes, part of that machine which is not you, but only something you occupy, is its brain. The brain is not the spirit. It is not the place from which consciousness comes. It is merely your machines CPU. “You” are spiritual, and come from a place outside our physical world.
At least this is an as yet still forming opinion.
"Yes, they do. Take it from someone who's had to patch a few of them up."
I believe it is stimulus response and all preprogrammed response.
Well, absent the ridiculous gun control in the UK he could have put the animal out of its misery the old fashioned way.
I think people who equate human life with animal life ought to have cattle prods inserted into their nether regions. They should be run over 1000 times with a large, greenhouse gas spewing SUV. They should be slit stem to stern and their intestines should be used for violin strings. They make me want to puke.
Actually they just make me laugh, sardonically, at their hatred of human life and, of course, themselves.
What he did was mean. However, he's a human and the cat is an animal. His punishment is just.
Wow....I hope you're a rare breed.
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