Posted on 04/22/2002 8:57:10 PM PDT by Terriergal
Canadian Cat-Torturers Escape Jail, Activists Fume
Fri Apr 19, 2:11 PM ET
By Natalie Jikerjian
TORONTO (Reuters) - Two Canadians who skinned a cat alive, and video-taped their venture claiming it was a performance art project, were sentenced to jail on Thursday, but one will serve his sentence at weekends, while the second walked free because of time served during the trial.
In comments and sentences that infuriated animal rights activists, Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston ignored the prosecution's plea to jail the two for the maximum of 2-1/2 years.
The crime was "not the worst offense possible," he said. "There are worse ways that this cat could have died."
Jesse Power, 22, and Anthony Wennekers, 25, both from Toronto, had pleaded guilty to charges including cruelty to animals.
They filmed the cat as they tempted it with a mouse, then skinned and decapitated and disemboweled it, and left its body dangling from a coat hanger.
The 10-minute video, shown twice during the court proceedings, sickened spectators as they listened to the cat's increasingly weak and plaintive meows.
"This cat absolutely suffered and the videotape of its torture and ultimate death was one of the most upsetting things I've seen," said Amy White, director of communications for the Toronto Humane Society.
"I am extremely upset that the punishment for Jesse Power and Anthony Wennekers does not equal the severity of this horrific crime."
Power, a vegetarian and a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design, had said the video was an artistic statement about the suffering of animals used for meat, according to newspaper reports.
Judge Ormston sentenced Power to 90 days in jail, to be served over 16 weekends, followed by an 18-month conditional sentence. Wennekers was given time served because he had remained in jail since his arrest last May.
The two men also received three years probation each.
Police have not yet found a third person who appeared in the video, identified only as Matt. Flyers circulated in Toronto and at the courthouse urged the public to help find him and bring him to justice.
Canada's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incensed at Thursday's sentences.
"Killing any animal in the name of art is deplorable and unacceptable," said the society's chairwoman, Vicky Earle. "There is no excuse for such cruel and criminal acts. Individuals such as these should never be allowed to possess or have contact with animals again."
I do NOT recommend reading the piece, which is from Canada's respectable, non tabloid National Post. I'm a dog person,and it upset me.That poor cat. And these two POS will only serve a short portion of their 21 month sentence.
By the way....you should read what i said in the other posts...I never insinuated ALL hunters. So I would appreciate it if you would at least slander me with correct info.
If you have changed your opinion I apologize and invite you to actually spend some time with true hunters to see what it and they are all about. If you have not I will not waste my time with you by posting all of your diatribes which prove I'm not slandering you on this thread.
Just a theory.
I'm agin 'em. I had two of them burst inside a grocery bag when I apparently set another bag with heavy canned goods down on them a few months ago. I hadn't brought in any of the groceries that day because the phone rang as I was pulling up to the house and I forgot about them until the next morning.
I can still smell tuna in my trunk today.
I don't care if anyone 'wastes their time' talking to me....I spoke my mind and you people jumped on me. I am entitled to post my experiences and beliefs like anyone. I am one person with one opinion. You guys started calling me a Terrorist ..posting my private emails to you...…practically demanded names of the people I know who drank or killed excess animals for fun (when your own group here in FR admitted to that!!), etc… then trying to get me banned because I once belonged to Peta for Gods sake.....some of those people are off the edge.
And that's all it was....my opinion.
You are a terrorist - you would force your belief system on others and refuse to admit you are wrong with your rash generalizations.
I withdraw any apology towards you and stand behind my post that drew your response. Obviously I hit a nerve. After reading this news story I will be forced to adopt your method of evaluating a group of people and conclude that all animal rights activists would willingly torture and kill a defenseless animal just to attempt to inflame undecide public opinion to their point of view.
Using your method of labeling members of a group I must, therefore, conclude that you would skin a live fawn, subjecting it to the most inhumane treatment, all on video dressed as a drunken hunter, in order to wrongly portray hunters in an attempt to further your anti-hunting agenda.
How does it feel to be lumped in with these @ssholes? Now you understand why the legitimate and true hunters on this forum kicked your sorry @ss on all those other threads - you did to us exactly what I just did to you. I will continue to post my assesment of your character on every thread I see you on until you admit you are acting in the same manner with respect to hunters.
Good night. Sleep tight you sick, perverted, cat-killing animal rights activist.
I can't imagine anyone I know doing such a thing,let alone allowing any other person to have knowledge of their sickness if they did.
How do three people this perverted find each other?Is this actually common behavior in what I call petaviles?
I'm sure that's why they got such a light sentence.
See!! There you go again trying to twist my words. Why would I say 'ALL' hunters. That's pretty narrowminded. If you are going to reply to me and to others about me....please.....use what I actually imply.....and not what you want others to believe. It's only fair. By deliberately slipping in that word "ALL" again you are misleading others. I will allow you to quote me using the word 'MOST' if you want...:}
I don't see it that way at all..I wrote what I believed and experienced with MOST hunters I know....and I'm guessing you guys didn't want any of that out of the closet so-to-speak. MOST of you guys basically just attacked me and just called me names.....tons of anger out there. I had a good time....and I think I provided therapy for alot of you. I also gave FR $25 for providing us with the threads. :} We did use alot of space up.
And we all think we should. Within certain parameters. I guess that's about it.
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