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.
He's a brave man. When he grows up he can be an abortionist.
If you ever meet someone on a crim-psyche unit, in for doing something awful to a person, they have almost always started doing awful things to critters first (then smaller siblings, the old lady next door and so-forth). It is as fun to them as sex....if not more-so, and they want to do it again.
Seriously, I don't want anyone like that withing a 100 miles of me, my family or my animals.
"This is a terrible precedent!"
Not if it keeps someone else from cruelly killing a puppy it isn't.
And if you can't draw the distinction between a violent and cruel act and contemplation, what's that make you?
No, there isn't a difference. It is not a human. If I destroy my car for art, for fun, or out of malice toward it (all without hurting any other person) it is my choice.
I just can't claim it for insurance.
He didn't get 18 months for being sick. He got 18 months for committing a crime that is 1)heinous in itself and 2)strongly indicative of sociopathy (i.e. the only thing that will keep him from doing the same to the first human who annoys him is fear of punishment).
I agree, I would like to beat him for months. The animal cruelty laws need to be tougher in this country.
It's the dissonance in the relative consequence and seriousness.
If I find brutalization of innocent life morally abhorrent (and worthy of maximum punishment) in both instances: there is, obviously, no "dissonance."
If he does it merely to satisfy a cruel and violent desire, my approach would be the same. Incidentally, the horses would be a nice touch.
Just because people think the man in question deserves to be punished harshly doesn't mean we would value the life of this puppy over that of a four-month old baby!! Talk about taking something out of context and twisting it. Nobody said they thought anything of the sort, for goodness sake.
Ask any mental health professional, and they will tell you that it's a well documented fact that cruelty to animals (among a whole host of other malicious acts) is one of the precursers to serial killing! It doesn't mean that the man is/would be a serial killer, but most serial killers have committed acts like beating a puppy to death before moving onto humans.
A couple of months counseling and some community service wouldn't be doing the man or society any good. He would need serious, long term therapy, and even then, it might not be successful. If he is, in fact, a socio-or psychopath, there is not much you can do for them.
For some (such as I) animals have always been there for me when the people weren't, so I will quickly admit that it hits my 'emotion' button.
Also, I work around some of these 'people'. Some of them as young as 4 (who stabbed a puppy to death). They really, REALLY do get off on the suffering of another being, and it excalates. After being around them for a bit, I walk out grateful that I have a key and they don't.
I find dissonance in paying people to kill babies and jailing them for killing animals. I hold human life far more valuable than any animal. If he'd done this to a goldfish or a garden snake, no one would care.
Joe Blow runs over and kills Richard Roe. He was tired after six hours on the road and lost control of his vehicle.
John Doe runs over and kills Stanley Sloe. He was paid $50,000 to do so by Sloe's estranged girlfriend Jane Doe.
In your world, it is unfair to send Doe to prison for one minute longer than Blow -- the only difference between the two is based on a judgment that Blow is a decent guy who is no more likely to kill in the future than anybody else, whereas Doe is a willful criminal.
Sonofab#*ch woulda got instant death if he was in my sight.
I hope he gets brutally raped repeatedly in prison. I hope his life is a living hell from this day forward.
I hope he wakes every morning hoping that day will be his last so his misery would end.
obviously you missed the sarcasm tag at the end.. why don't you go re-read it. Life is life buddy...
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