Cat Sniper

[Gosfgiants]

I'm not sure what to make of this one. Someone is usiing cats for targets up in Napa. Here is the story from the Chronicle:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/15/BAGM532NLG1.DTL

[Wolf Hopper]

They have to catch these guys - this is a gateway crime. Human targets will be next.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

I'm sure what to make of it. Steve is exactly right, and these perps are just bad and should rot in jail.

[Craig S.]

I'm sure what to make of it. Steve is exactly right, and these perps are just bad and should rot in jail.

I agree - I'm another who thinks that it's a logical step from small animals to people.

I've got no problem with people who hunt game, but something like this isn't about hunting. It's only about killing, and the person(s) doing this obviously has some big problems.

[KCBOOMER]

I hate it when people abuse animals. Just infuriates me.

[rcartman28]

This infuriates me to see this, and would make Denise even madder, especially because we have three very loving cats at home.

[gyb13]

better cats than people.

[Rajah]

I agree - I'm another who thinks that it's a logical step from small animals to people.


Logical step? guh? I knew some other kids when I was growing up who did some things to cats that weren't very...ahhh...pleasant. None of them has ever turned into a murderer. Pretty big step.

Its probably some stupid high school kids. Not trying to be insensitive to cat lovers, but its a pretty (expletive deleted) big step from cats to people.

(and no, I wasn't one of them)

[Wolf Hopper]

I knew some other kids when I was growing up who did some things to cats that weren't very...ahhh...pleasant. None of them has ever turned into a murderer.

Give 'em time. They may just do it yet.
Or, they may do stuff that you don't knpw - beat their kids, abuse their companion, stuff like that behind closed doors. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean that it can't be happening.

A major study was published in 1985. It showed that men in the federal prison system with a high rate of recurrent, serious aggression had engaged in more episodes of animal cruelty in childhood than had nonviolent criminals within the federal prison system.

There is a link.

[Craig S.]

Logical step? guh? I knew some other kids when I was growing up who did some things to cats that weren't very...ahhh...pleasant. None of them has ever turned into a murderer. Pretty big step.

I'm not saying everyone makes that step. However, people who become killers very rarely start out with humans. Usually it's small animals, and it goes from there. Check out the childhoods and teenage years of many of the more prolific sociopathic killers - I'd guarantee that you'll find almost all of them killed animals first.

[Rajah]

I apologize, I was a bit harsh in my response yesterday.

That said, sociopaths are a tiny fragment of society, and whether you like it or not, stupid teenagers are not. Some kids driving around at night shooting stray cats is stupid teenager activity. We're not talking about them capturing the cats and slowly torturing them to death. Now it is sad that some of these cats are family pets, but why are these people allowing their cats to wander the streets in the middle of the night anyway (the article states that most of the killings occured around midnight)? Next thing you know, these cats will be mating with strays creating a bigger problem of an overabundant population of strays.

I certainly hope they get caught, and (assuming they are in fact stupid kids) the cops put some fear in them. But I just think its going a bit far to accuse these kids of being future sociopaths and throwing them in prison.

And people, for gods sakes, keep your cats indoors, not wandering where they please!

[gyb13]

can we shoot the cats and these kids?