When Does The Brutality End?

It’s January 26, 1999 in Columbus, Ohio and a man adopts a cat from the Citizens For Humane Action. About a week later, he beats the cat, pokes out its eye, breaks its jaw and legs and leaves it alive, in agony and a barely recognizable bloody mess in the laundry basket.  Later, he calls his girlfriend and asks her to take the cat to the Humane Society and tell them that she found it by the road. Instead, she took the cat to an emergency vet where there was no choice but to euthanize it.

The cat shown above is not the one discussed in this article but another sad and unresolved case that ended in death for the poor little creature.

Supposedly, six or seven other cats and a puppy had been adopted by this man previously and were tortured and mutilated. In court the man pled guilty to a charge of torturing one cat – the one from the Citizens For Humane Action – in an apparent effort to avoid the publicity of a jury trial. For his crime he was sentenced to 90 days in jail (45 suspended), 5 years probation, mandatory counseling and he was forbidden from owning any living thing during the 5 year probation period.

Here’s the thing. Just how much of this is true?

You know, I’m as sickened and angered as the next person by the brutalization of any animal and when I first read of this incident on pet-abuse.com I thought it would be an ideal case on which to base an article. Problem is, I really can’t find any proof that the horrific acts occurred. What I have found, however, is an online diatribe against this man that smacks of internet stalking. Message boards are filled with hate and vitriol towards him yet no-one has offered any substantive proof of their claims.

Another side to this story is presented here:

http://www.knightsofliberty.com/lyingaboutshonrahrigwedontplayaround.html

Now I’m not defending anyone, nor am I saying that there’s no truth to the allegations. I simply don’t know what the truth is. What I do know is that all too often someone gets the wrong side of a story, or deliberately distorts it, and a host of well-meaning but otherwise ignorant people pick up on it and spread misinformation across the web in a heartbeat. And if this man is innocent, then what has been done to him is almost as callous as the acts he purportedly committed on the cats.

So, please, remain vigilant in your efforts to bring animal abusers to justice but do your research and be absolutely sure of your facts before you condemn someone who just may be innocent.

“Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other.” ~ Dr. Louis J Camuti.