Colorado Cat Killer Says He's Justified

There is really no way to justify what he did. He took an innocent life. That burns my biscuit. People are sick!

It doesn't really sound like life or death to me. Why didn't he just pick the cat up & remove it from the room, resolve to keep the cats out of the room from then on & then try to find homes for them? Cats will be cats. If my Mini is getting into something & is being a pest, I just calmly pick her up with a "No" & either remove her, or the problem, it's that simple.

That is sickening. `he first thought about strangling one of the cats but figured that would take too long'



To me, that's not responding in a rage to his wife's illness. And it may not even have been the cat that chewed through the tubes. He just picked up any old kitten and bashed it to death. That's just a pathetic excuse and I'm sure were his wife fit to stand up and speak for herself then she'd be furious he's using her to justify his violent crime. All he wanted to do was kill one of them - didn't care which one it was, didn't care how he did it as long as it was violent and quick.

What a disgusting human being - I'm glad the rest of the cats were removed and I'm dreadfully sorry the son was obviously so mistreated his whole life that this was the last straw for him, and he felt he needed to kill himself as a result.

What a terrible story. I hope the piece of excrement gets thrown in jail.

Sick Sick Sick is the only thing I can say about this......being (I censored myself).

One thing that truely bothers me (other than what this being did) and that is he will not say whether or not he believes what he did is wrong.

I feel sorry for the cat that died at this being's hands and I feel sorry for the son that commited sucide. But I feel nothing but disgust towards that being.

What a horrible story. And the poor son that killed himself.

I was actually going to watch this story on the news the other day...Guess I'm glad I didn't after all....

RIP, little cat, AND son.

Sick.....sick.....sick....

There is no justification for that guy to kill a kitten like that Poor sweet kitten
Thankfully that kitten is in a happy place now
May you both Rest in Peace The innocent kitten & the caring son...

the really sad part is the son didnt even see what happened if he was in the other room and knew the kitten had been killed, obviously this has happened before. That poor kid had probably been abused and tortured his whole life and chances are noone will ever know the truth. They should be charging him for his son's death.

The man should be charged with felony animal abuse, that's clear, there's no justification. However, I'm surprised at the amount of vilification here.

His wife suffered a stroke, and her fate was obviously uncertain for a number of days. She was unexpectedly released, instead of being transferred to an extended care facility that would have allowed the family to prepare for caring for her at home. The home is a trailer, which to me implies that space is probably limited, so it would be difficult to confine 10 cats to a room or rooms so that they couldn't chew on the tubing. The man also mentioned in the interview that they didn't have enough money to pay the $50 surrender fee for each of the ten cats. In other words, the family was going through an extremely stressful time. IMO, there are some mitigating circumstances in this case. Condemn the act, but perhaps it's not right to roundly condemn the perpetrator. This doesn't appear to be wanton cruelty, but "seeing red", and losing control.

My family went through something very similar in 1996, and are going through it again with my m-i-l right now. Stress causes people to overreact, to do or say things they wouldn't under normal circumstances. What he did was monstrous, but that doesn't mean he is a monster.

My sister is a home hospice care nurse. While I was visiting last summer, she got a frantic 4:00 a.m. call from a patient's wife, because their poodle had chewed through the O2 tubing. My sister had to rush to the home and replace the tubing, and said that the patient probably would have been dead if his wife hadn't noticed the problem and called right away. Obviously, a cat or dog doesn't deliberately endanger a life by chewing, but can.

Okay, fire away, but remember not to .

Sounds like the guy doesn't have any common sense. Or he's just psychotic, probably both.

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that he was arrested in 98 for child cruelty suggests that this is a person with a serious problem - he's already made the jump from harming animals to harming people.

That's the problem - we're all jumping to conclusions based on sensationalist newspaper accounts. In some states, leaving a child between the ages of 10 to 14 unattended is deemed "child cruelty". People have concluded that the son committed suicide because his father killed the cat, but aren't taking into consideration that he just might have had pre-existing psychiatric problems, felt guilty about attacking his father with a knife, or become unhinged because he thought his mother was dying. These are aspects we are completely unable to judge from media accounts.

Either way, the son felt the need to end his life, and I'm sad for that. Whether or not he died because he was so upset about the cat is irrevelant to me.

Did you actually read what the guy is accused of doing?
He is accused of smashing cat's head into the bookcase about 12 times, and then throwing the dead animal onto the front porch.
And you are surprised that people are upset?
And why did these people had 10 cats in a trailer in a first place?

see that dont excactly fly with me, i read somewhere that he thought about choking it but it would take too long, see he had time and the thought to think about it, therefor it was almost premeditated. he had the consiousness to think that it would take too long. he might have been angry, and who wouldnt have been, but there are other ways to punish the animal where it would learn or to seperate them from the situation however hard it might have been.

Yes, I'm aware of what he's accused of, and am not surprised that people who haven't been in a similar situation are upset. I've been in such a situation a number of times, between my parents and parents-in-law, and can't picture myself taking out my frustrations on an innocent pet.

Nevertheless, the lack of insight into (potential) problems among the posters here bothers me. Have they no empathy, or do they really believe they'll have complete control of their emotions in extreme situations? If they do believe that, they're probably kidding themselves, which would explain their lack of empathy.

This thinking in "absolutes" bothers me; such thinking is far too polarized. Maybe I've been a moderator/teacher for far too long, but the insistence on "absolutes" frightens me. Where's the human side? Wow, selfishness really reigns, doesn't it?

Agreed - and he also stated that he `considered choking one, but that it would take too long'. I don't see his act as a final act of desperate frustration.

I would usually agree with you entirely, Trish, and usually be the bleeding heart for the perpertrator and not the victim. But people handle things differently - usually referenced by the sort of person they actually are. This man's response was inappropriate no matter what his stress levels. It was violent, premeditated and random - he didn't even know which kitten or cat had chewed through the tubes, he just wanted to kill one of them - any of them.

People can respond to stress with violence, yes. But only a select few people respond to stress with the amount of violence and cruelty seen here, and the amount of planning - it wasn't a knee-jerk, instant response, as he has admitted himself.

The stress he was under I'm sure is a contributing factor, but certainly not a mitigating one, not in this case. People are exposed to extreme stress every day and don't respond as this man did. It is clear at least from the reports that there was a difficult and tense situation in this house - whether or not he is the cause remains to be seen.

But his actions are unforgivable and, to my mind, not adequately explained by stress - even extreme stress. Had he booted the kitten out the door, or thrown something at it or even thrown it outside that could possibly be justified using a stress defence. But he didn't - he thought about it, he planned it, and he violently beat the kitten with the full intent on killing it.

Those kinds of actions would not exonerate him if this were a murder charge, no matter what kind of stress he was under. It doesn't matter if the victim were a kitten or a human - the motivation, actions and planning remain the same.

ok, after closely watching the video, first off the guys face says he is lying at the moment he says he felt there was no other choice. Second NONE of the family sounds sad about the brother, "he came and commited suicide to punish me" where was the extream emotion over his son? third what in the world is hanging on the celing, that looks like something from the movie seven. where the airfreshners were hung all over to hide the smell??

I'm not particularly an empathic type person, but I do feel sorry that the son was pushed to killing himself.

As someone who has been on the receiving end of a father who had to take his stress and anger out on others, I won't accept that as an excuse. No matter how bad your day/week/month etc was that is never an excuse to torture and kill.

hmm, do i believe that being in a stressed out situation, makes it ok, to pick up and helpless kitten and bash its head in?

hmmm, nope.

well my mother used to make me wear women clothing and show all of her friends, so that is why i become a serial killer(not me, i forget which one that was) ,, i really dont care, all that i care about was he went around killing women.

Lots and lots of people around the world have traumatic lives and upbringings, and stressors and terrible things that happen to them, but only a small percentage of those people turn into violent criminals, murderers, rapists, serial killers and so forth. There must be something that is already there, that makes these people do what they do, and the things that happen to them throughout their lives may have an impact or may not. It's more likely that events that happened in their lives just give them a focal point for their psychopathic tendencies.

From what has been said I think this man should be punished to the full extent of the law for this crime - because it was no heat-of-the-moment thing, and he's admitted that himself. Even if it was, I'm surprised there's anyone out there who isn't shocked and frightened by the lengths to which he went over a stressful situation.

I would consider that I have been through some situations that would equal his in terms of stress, and it never once occurred to me to handle them by brutally murdering a defenceless animal.

To put it politely I think someone should bash the *expletive* b******'s head in, just like he did the kitten.

RIP son and kitten.