Posted on 12/08/2004 12:45:36 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
SKOWHEGAN -- A 26-year-old Fairfield man was sentenced to 18 months behind bars Tuesday for beating a 4-month-old wolf-hybrid puppy to death with his fists.
James Mayhew pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty in Somerset County Superior Court. Superior Court Chief Justice Nancy Mills sentenced Mayhew to five years in prison with all but 18 months suspended. Mayhew will be on probation for four years after he is released.
Kennebec and Somerset County District Attorney Evert N. Fowle said Tuesday afternoon that his office treats animal cruelty cases seriously because studies show a link between abuse of animals and violence against humans.
"People who would abuse or torture innocent animals are people who would do the same (to humans) under the right circumstances," Fowle said.
It was the second time in less than a week that a prison sentence was handed down for the relatively rare felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty in Fowle's jurisdiction.
In Augusta last week, Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar sentenced a Randolph man to four years behind bars for running over and killing his girlfriend's pregnant cat.
Jabar said the act amounted to domestic abuse because it was an attempt to control his girlfriend. One witness described the man "howling and laughing," before killing the cat.
In the Mayhew case, Fowle said there was no link to domestic violence. The Fairfield man was apparently upset because the puppy urinated in his apartment.
"He beat the dog to death because it urinated inside his residence, but the dog urinated because it was scared to death of him because of past abusive treatment," Fowle said.
Police said the puppy was beaten over a period of two months and died on July 31.
An autopsy concluded the puppy had a broken rib, a severely bruised lung and bruised muscles around the head and ears.
Police said at the time of Mayhew's arrest, a veterinarian who performed the autopsy concluded the puppy either bled to death or suffocated on its own blood.
Mayhew had no other pets or animals at his Mountain Avenue home. He apparently had seen the dog advertised for sale and bought it at eight or six weeks old.
Dang darlin'! You do have an ego!
We don't beat the steer to death and we don't torture the chickens. Beating a puppy to death is a senseless act of cruelty.
And yes, I agree with you. Paul said don't revolt. (By the way, we couldn't have had our own revolution, then).
What is prison? A place we put people who society has shunned. They are left there for a predetermined amount of time until they prove the are worthy of living in society again or have paid their debt to society. Working at the local human society for 2 years is not shunning the person, just making their life a little more inconvenient. In prison life is a lot more inconvenient and they are kept away from other free people and animals that they may or may not harm.
Animal cruelty laws are recent, as in decades. Some locales still have none on the books.
I don't believe in animal cruelty, either. But felony status for killing someone's pet is wrong. Pets mean the world to us, but as with anything treasured that is not human, our value is not what society ultimately places in it. My grandmother's letters to me are priceless, but if lost, are worth only paper.
I agree. I have a few little friends I would like this gentleman to meet. In an enclosed fence.
I would very much enjoy watching him try to beat those guys to death.
No. Because I'll bet your version of animal cruelty is restricted certain species of cute furry mammals. Torturing baby spiders to death and eating baby cows probably doesn't rate highly on your animal cruelty scale. Maybe baby cows eh? They are pretty cute. Sorry, only humans have rights. Secondly the prosecutor is in error by regurgitating POP psychology about animal abusers going on to abuse humans. Last time I checked, pre-crime was not a crime. If it were we'd be justified in locking up queers as they tend to sexually abuse children as with same frequency if not more than the animal abuser goes on to violence.
Didn't "miss" it, thank you. Simply ignored it, as an idiocy not worth even the minimal amount of "respect" necessary to swat it down like the poor, palsied thing it is/was.
Clearly, animals DO, in fact, "have rights" in this country. There are plainly worded, inviolable l-a-w-s against the most egregious forms of animal cruelty on the books in each and every state, in this country. That this (evidently) displeases you is -- I assure you -- of zero consequence whatsoever, in both the abstract and the particular.
Your "argument," such as it appears to be (it isn't presented coherently enough for one to be absolutely certain) is that said laws should not, in fact, exist, for some mumbled, street-crazy reason or another. That's as may (or may not) be; the fact remains, nonetheless, that said rights ARE a reality.
That short, yellow thing that whizzed by you, just now? The Clue Bus. Catch a ride.
Sounds good.
Your mention of fencing has my mind playing with ideas about an electrified one and this puppy-beating bastard.
Working at the local human society for 2 years is not shunning the person, just making their life a little more inconvenient.
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I don't know...to a punk like that, it sounds more like an opportunity to troll for more helpless animals to prey on...actually pretty convenient for someone with those kinds of predilictions, imo. I don't think he ought to be allowed anywhere near a Humane Society. We can't stop him from buying another puppy, but we don't have to make it easier for him to find others to beat on, either.
You are right!
Lots of humane societies are VERY careful about who they let work there. They wouldn't let someone like this jerk in the parking lot, much less around more potential victims for 'fun times'.
If it were we'd be justified in locking up queers as they tend to sexually abuse children as with same frequency if not more than the animal abuser goes on to violence.
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Perhaps I am wrong here, but I do believe that the animal cruelty-human violence link has been well-established with years of research and waaayyy too many cases in point. I don't believe the homosexuality-pedophelia link has been as well researched and supported with facts.
That's good news!
Yet, cops can kill family pets at will.
I even do that with flys, lol. Sometimes.
So now you can profess to know whether or not animals have souls...
Once again you break it down obviously to a simplicity that you can understand.
I would dare say that most people out here belive that animals have a soul as well.. They feel pain, expirence anxity, sadness, joy , and other emotional states.
if you cannot see that or expirence that, that is your issue life is not a simple as you put it.
Yes the laws apply to us, but the also apply to the animals... Farms can only feed their cows certian feed... dog owners have to leash there dogs in public...etc
The world is not as black and white as you would like it.
Re-read the Bible also God has stated that all living things have souls.
Is there a difference between a dog and a human?
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