how do we find change ?

=warning=

article below may be too hard for some to read.
if you're one, read with caution.





=





TORONTO (Reuters) - Two Canadians who skinned a cat alive, and video-taped their venture claiming it was a performance art project, were sentenced to jail on Thursday, but one will serve his sentence at weekends, while the second walked free because of time served during the trial.


In comments and sentences that infuriated animal rights activists, Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston ignored the prosecution's plea to jail the two for the maximum of 2-1/2 years.

The crime was "not the worst offense possible," he said. "There are worse ways that this cat could have died."

Jesse Power, 22, and Anthony Wennekers, 25, both from Toronto, had pleaded guilty to charges including cruelty to animals.

They filmed the cat as they tempted it with a mouse, then skinned and decapitated and disemboweled it, and left its body dangling from a coat hanger.

The 10-minute video, shown twice during the court proceedings, sickened spectators as they listened to the cat's increasingly weak and plaintive meows.

"This cat absolutely suffered and the videotape of its torture and ultimate death was one of the most upsetting things I've seen," said Amy White, director of communications for the Toronto Humane Society.

"I am extremely upset that the punishment for Jesse Power and Anthony Wennekers does not equal the severity of this horrific crime."

Power, a vegetarian and a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design, had said the video was an artistic statement about the suffering of animals used for meat,??????????????? according to newspaper reports.

Judge Ormston sentenced Power to 90 days in jail, to be served over 16 weekends, followed by an 18-month conditional sentence. Wennekers was given time served because he had remained in jail since his arrest last May.

The two men also received three years probation each.

Police have not yet found a third person who appeared in the video, identified only as Matt. Flyers circulated in Toronto and at the courthouse urged the public to help find him and bring him to justice.

Canada's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incensed at Thursday's sentences.

"Killing any animal in the name of art is deplorable and unacceptable," said the society's chairwoman, Vicky Earle. "There is no excuse for such cruel and criminal acts. Individuals such as these should never be allowed to possess or have contact with animals again."

=

my response to this as posted at another forum i visit , where i found this "article" -

i cant understand that.. i just cant understand.

and i cant understand the laws, animal cruelty is barely punished, barely recognized, barely made time for in courtrooms.

offenders rarely get prison time and if so it's what, 2 years maximum?

that is violence staring you right in the face, that is violence and nothing happens, nothing has happened to say;
this is unacceptable, intolerable, this act will put you in prison and ruin your future. this act is wrong and unjust and you will suffer the consequences.

probation? on weekends?

what is the percentage of people commiting these inhuman acts on animals that later go on to hurt/kill human beings?

laws need to change, there has to be change.

my stomach turns raw with sickness and the tears come full with anger -laws need to change.

it's violence, and i just cant understand it.

=

Maybe having people sign petitions asking for tougher sentencing guidelines and then sending the petitions to the appropriate governing body would be a place to start.

I worry sometimes that maybe judges have seen and heard so many more bad things than regular people do, they get hardened. That's the only thing I can think of. I mean, I can hardly read that, I can't imagine watching a video of it twice?

That is no more "art" than child pornography! He claims to be making a statement against animal cruelty and yet he mercilessly kills an innocent creature 100x more intelligent than the cows I'm sure he's trying to "save." No matter the excuse, sick is sick.

Colorado tried to pass a law making animal cruelty, 2nd conviction, a felony. Something that would stick with them for the rest of their lives. It was killed in committee because they decided that making it a felony would be too expensive. They've got a watered down version in committee right now, which would require counceling but it would remain a misdemenor. I haven't heard anything about it since it was introduced.

The biggest problem is with the laws, not necessarily the judicial system. They can only sentence them with so much and there is no minimum sentence. Until the laws are changed, nothing will change. Politicians realize that cats and dogs don't vote and people don't think it can happen to an animal they love. And most people really don't care that much to make their opinions known. The only way to change the system is to get a lot of people to tell the politicians that it is not acceptable to abuse animals.

Sadly, the truth is that animals do not vote, therefore, they have no say and no rights in many of the people in powers minds. It always sickens me to read and hear of this type of behavior, and if I had my way, I would skin alive the persons responsible for this. But the reality is animals have no rights, we are the only voice they have. Case in point, there is a video on the internet that shows a momma cat being beaten, decapitated and boiled and although PETA has found out about it, and has chased the sickos from one website to another, the video still exists and is shown.

Where the sickness lies is in the brain and in the darkest of hearts. It saddens me so.