UPDATE ON RABBIT CRUELTY CASE-HELP NEEDED!

PETA.org ^ | 3/25/03 | Martin Mersereau

[libertylass]

Martin Mersereau, Senior Caseworker Domestic Animal Issues & Abuse Dept. Tel: 757-622-7382, ext. 1506 Fax: 757-628-0796 please visit http://helpinganimals.com/

From: Martin Mersereau [mailto:MartinM@peta.org] Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 11:00 AM Subject: Regarding Long Island rabbit cruelty case

Dear All,

Please forgive the impersonal reply, but all the emails I've received regarding this case precludes me from answering everyone individually. We're on top of this case, and are simply appalled. This family really shakes our faith in humanity. What a pack of vile devils! To make matters worse, as you probably know, NY's felony cruelty to animals provision will not apply here. In order for a felony cruelty to animals charge to apply, the victim must be a companion animal! Since the rabbits were kept as a food source, they cannot be defined as "companion animals."

However, we can still urge the prosecutor's office to charge the Loversos with felonies for animal fighting. As specified by Article 26 of New York's Agriculture and Markets laws (§ 351), it is a felony to "[cause] any animal to engage in animal fighting ... [f]or amusement," and to permit [such activity] ... to occur on premises under [one's] control." The Loversos reportedly did both.

The more letters the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office receives, the more likely they will either a) file these additional charges or b) submit the case before the Grand Jury for felony animal fighting indictments.

Attached is our letter to that office. Please forward this email widely and feel free to plagiarize the letter if necessary.

The Honorable Thomas Spota Suffolk County District Attorney Suffolk County District Attorney's Office Building #77 N County Complex Hauppauge, NY 11787 Fax: 631-853-5117 Copies of all letters should be sent to the assistant prosecutor assigned to this case: Jeff Langlan, Assistant District Attorney Suffolk County District Attorney's Office 400 Carleton Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 Fax: 631-853-5844 Thank you for your concern and for your willingness to act! Sincerely, Martin Mersereau, Senior Caseworker

[Rocky Mountain High]

You, my friend, are a red-neck country bumpkin.

[Coroner]

I used to have several Boa constrictors. Their favorite food were rabbits. They were dispatched quickly by the boas. Law of the jungle. I dont know what they did to those rabbits??

[Alylonee]

Wow, that is truly horrible. These idiots should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Anyone that could torture animals for the fun of it as apposed to hunting (killing swiftly with little to no pain), should be sent to Iraq to live with those cruel, merciless monsters. I hate PETA with a passion, but I hate animal abuse more.

PEOPLE THAT COULD TORTURE ANIMALS ARE CAPABLE OF MUCH WORSE TO OTHER HUMANS.

[libertylass]

Chill out. Your insensitive statements are really just counter productive. If you're not interested in helping then just find another post. It's as easy as that. I'm a phoney? Wow....and why do I need to see pigs being slaughtered? I love ham and bacon, but don't need to see how they get to my table. Yes...you should stand by your convictions with PETA and any other organization, as shall I. If that makes me out of touch with reality then perhaps you need to re-think that one.

These animals were cruelly treated. Either you get that or you don't. You're not the only one that has been foolish on this site. I just picked on. Don't take it so personally.

[libertylass]

I fail to see the connection. Fighting for humane treatment of all animals, even while killing them (if that makes sense) is important to many animals lovers. Regardless if you support PETA, The Humane Society, or any other animal group. PETA tends to be a bit radical at times, but in this case I believe they are trying to treat the crime as a crime. I'm sure you wouldn't want small children to have observed this. I know I wouldn't. Doesn't that say something about the horrific nature of this particular case?

[Alylonee]

I'm confused here... Do we have to go through PETA? Isn't there a number to the district attorneys office in the posting? Can't we just contact them? That might solve the PETA problem... forgive me if that is a stupid question!

[Khepera]

Your right I don't know about training hunting dogs.

Ya know even when PETA is right I would seek other avenues of addressing the problem. I bet even the KKK is right about some things but I would never use their organization for any action right or wrong.

[LowOiL]

I'd have to have my children starving and the peta link paying $10,000 a pop to click it, before I would hit their link.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Like i've always said,people who are involved in this kind of stuff should be subjected to the same cruelty they have inflicted.This is the only true way to teach human scum a lesson they'll never forget.

[Servant of the Nine]

Ya know even when PETA is right I would seek other avenues of addressing the problem. I bet even the KKK is right about some things but I would never use their organization for any action right or wrong.

I agree. I can't help but think anything done through them (PETA or KKK) does more harm by encouraging them than good it does by righting a wrong.

I am gonna E-Mail the DA directly

So9

[vetvetdoug]

I love it when folks that are the sires and dams of their own siblings call me that.

[skinkinthegrass]

Jimmie Cahtar was fishing, he saw a wild bunny, swimming towards him, gashing its' long pearlly whites @ him, Jimmie terrified tried to hit the GOP bunny w/ an oar...secret service agents, later surrounded the bunny and killed it using the holy hand-gernade (sp?), they bunny stew, that night...that what my gran-pappy told me...(grin)

[Khepera]

Good Idea!

[skinkinthegrass]

their evil cronies the ground squirrels.....Not Chip & Dale...PETA=ALF=ELF=Earth First=Marxist...etc.

[skinkinthegrass]

http://web.ask.com/redir?bpg=http%3a%2f%2fweb.ask.com%2fweb%3fq%3djimmy%2bcarter%2battacked%2bby%2brabbit%2b1979%26o%3d0&q=jimmy+carter+attacked+by+rabbit+1979&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.newsoftheodd.com%2farticle1021.html&s=a

Yeah, that the One... :)

[Feiny]

Not this bunny!

[demsux]

I'm confused here... Do we have to go through PETA? Isn't there a number to the district attorneys office in the posting? Can't we just contact them? That might solve the PETA problem... forgive me if that is a stupid question!

Amen, Brother...working with PETA is like working with the DNC because a conservative did something wrong.

If you lie down with dogs...

[ChemistCat]

PETA is a terrorist organization, plain and simple.

And someone who is torturing small animals for pleasure is building himself up to torturing people--that's pretty much a given. So is this an impasse?

No. Of course not.

Please let me know how I can help put pressure on the DA to prosecute this case with all the effort they can put into it, and I'll be glad to help, but I will not have anything whatsoever to do with PETA.

I must add however that my state has been unable to put sufficient investigative and prosecutorial effort into finding and arresting someone who raped an 8-month-old baby girl in Henrietta, OK. She was raped in her parents' home with her parents in the house. The parents did not take the baby to the doctor--the grandmother did so, late the next day. She had broken legs, ribs, a broken pelvis, and her reproductive organs had to be removed. The child protective services is considering whether to sever the parents' parental rights, but nobody has been arrested. In the meantime, the child cannot be adopted by a family that would actually protect her from savage rapists and people who won't take care of a severely wounded child. (I would bet my house that the rapist and the baby have the same last name.)

I would love to extend my outrage to this New York case, especially since I suspect that someone who would rape a baby likely got his start on small animals. I am all for shooting these kinds of sickos. But you see, PETA classes me in the same sicko category, simply because I eat meat.

I'd like very much to take positive action to reduce the cruelty in our culture. But I won't do it through the terrorist organization PETA. I will not do it through an organization that uses terror tactics to achieve its ends, nor will I lend legitimacy to their view of reality. You cannot do good with evil means.

You don't have to be a PETA type to find this rabbit abuse worth fighting. Therefore, we don't need PETA to fight it.

[Deguello]

Robert Lee, Texas...home of the Rabbit Twisters. Dates back to the Depression and the trade off between Ranchers and starving people.

[proud American in Canada]

"It amazes me that after you asked reasonably for the smart-alec commenters to go elsewhere, they just couldn't restrain themselves. I too despite PETA. That doesn't mean I automatically despise or ridicule every case they're involved in for the cases stand on their own regardless of who's involved as far as I'm concerned.

The thugs involved in this need to be seriously punished, and just because other atrocities are going on that need punished, doesn't eliminate the need in cases like these. "

MM and LL..

I agree with what you said MM.
Now, this is the kind of thing that would have gotten my blood boiling about two weeks ago.
Now, I had friends email this to me today but I couldn't get too excited (because I kept thinking of those people being held in captivity in Iraq).
But you're right... what that family has done is pure evil. And it deserves to be punished.
Thanks for the extra push, both of you. :)