Man Sentenced For Starving His Dog

Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) ^ | June 19, 2002

[southern rock]

because you see nothing particularly wrong with starving a dog to death.

I never said I don't find anything wrong with it. I don't find it a legally punishable offense.

Morally wrong does NOT necessarily = legally wrong.

[sinkspur]

This is obvious evidence of the wussification of the avarage American today. Can you imagine a rugged frontiersman, 150 years ago, cuddling his dog to sleep at night, going "coochie, coochie coo"?

Those frontiersmen shot people who messed with their animals. Many on this thread would do the same thing.

You and mameslukesabre seem to have a need to appear macho; instead you come off as inbred hillbillies.

[riley1992]

Okay, let me rephrase this. Why shouldn't a tame and domesticated dog fall under the same parameters for unjust cruelty as does a child? Why should it be okay to abuse them just to abuse them?

[southern rock]

Those frontiersmen shot people who messed with their animals. Many on this thread would do the same thing.

Yes! Because those animals were their property, their LIVELYHOOD. You don't actually think it was because of some emotional attachment, do you?

[Ditter]

Remember those kids who were dragging Dutchess around by a choke collar when you first found her? They grew up to be people who chained their dogs up & starved them to death.

[mamelukesabre]

inbred hillbillies that live in a trailer park? Is that what you meant?

Those old frontiersmen shot people that messed with their animals just as they would shoot someone that messed with any of their property. WHat's your point?

[Bella_Bru]

Your "wussification of America" also seems to speak of technology. We no longer need to live off the land or have our own farms or hunt our own meat. The computer that your butt is parked at right now is part of that wussification. So if you are so opposed to it, why don't you go live in a hut in the woods and stop using modern conveniences?

[southern rock]

Why shouldn't a tame and domesticated dog fall under the same parameters for unjust cruelty as does a child?

Because it is not a human child.

Why should it be okay to abuse them just to abuse them?

It's not O.K., but it shouldn't be illegal. It requires a cold objectivity to understand this. The fact that you don't actually makes you a decent person. I just wouldn't want you being a judge.

[dighton]

Reminds me of the old saw; "it bodes ill for the State when a dog lays dying at it's masters gate."

A dog starv’d at his master’s gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

-- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence.

[riley1992]

No, it is not a human child but that doesn't make abusing it any more accetable legally nor should it.

And, you needn't worry, I don't want to be a judge. I hate attorneys and would never make it through my first day of law school.

[southern rock]

The computer that your butt is parked at right now is part of that wussification.

Agreed. I have cable , too. I'm just as sucky as everyone else. But I'm not violating anyone's property rights by going online or watching T.V

[mamelukesabre]

WHat??

You think abusing a dog is equal to abusing a child?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Very good. Thanks. A poetry Buff I see.

[sinkspur]

You don't actually think it was because of some emotional attachment, do you?

Yes I do. How do you know they didn't have emotional attachments to their animals?

Or do you think mankind has always been as heartless towards animals as you two?

[riley1992]

First, why don't you address my last post to you. And second, no, I do not put it on equal par with that, I do believe there should be ramifications, though, aside from crying into your hankie for the poor, mixed up and sad man who did it.

[sinkspur]

It's not O.K., but it shouldn't be illegal. It requires a cold objectivity to understand this.

It requires a neanderthal, adolescent, lets-giggle-while-we-set-the-dog-on-fire mentality to not understand that cruelty to a sentient being is criminal.

Cruelty to an animal is now, in Texas, a felony.

That makes you somebody's girlfriend in a Texas hoosegow.

[mamelukesabre]

address your last post? The one about you not wanting to be a judge or lawyer? What should I say about that?

[mamelukesabre]

You have no clue about life in a rural area, do you?

[AnAmericanMother]

Emotional attachment to animals didn't begin with Disney, as you claim.

Read the Odyssey sometime.

When intelligent creatures work for man, lines of communication -- even affection -- develop. That is as true today as it was for Odysseus and Argos

"Thus they spake one to the other. And lo, a hound raised up his head and pricked his ears, even where he lay, Argos, the hound of Odysseus, of the hardy heart, which of old himself had bred, but had got no joy of him, for ere that, he went to sacred Ilios. Now in time past the young men used to lead the hound against wild goats and deer and hares; but as then, despised he lay (his master being afar) in the deep dung of mules and kine, whereof an ample bed was spread before the doors, till the thralls of Odysseus should carry it away to dung therewith his wide demesne. There lay the dog Argos, full of vermin. Yet even now when he was aware of Odysseus standing by, he wagged his tail and dropped both his ears, but nearer to his master he had not now the strength to draw. But Odysseus looked aside and wiped away a tear."

[sinkspur]

You have no clue about life in a rural area, do you?

Do rural people regularly starve their dogs?