[Conservative til I die]

You are spot on (this coming from a vegan). The man's real crime was killing cute animals. I wonder if the judge has ever been to a slaughterhouse?

Our laws and ethics do not operate within a vaccuum. We use common sense and cultural values to realize that cruelty to animals that are commonly kept as companions and pets, and not as food or pests, is wrong. A dog does not equal a cockroach in the eyes of our culture, our ethical structure, or our legal system, and nor should it.

Just the same as the law recognizes that "murder" in self-defense is not the moral equivalent of premeditated, 1st degree murder.

PS-The various states of the USA have regulations on the treatment of animals in slaughterhouses. Abuse is not endorsed in slaughterhouses either.

[monkey]

Killing kittens is culturally unacceptable, because we use cultural values to determine acceptability? That is circular and meaningless reasoning.

Killing kittens is illegal because they are cute, and people use them as pets. Not so for those ugly old pigs and cows, except maybe those cute pot-bellied pigs. It's all about how our feelings, you see (as long as we aren't inconvenienced, of course). Oprah rules!

If "cultural values" are so defined, then abortion is fine too.