Murder Most Feline

[drummer]

Murder Most Feline


Barbara Wiesinger had an evening ritual with her cat, Cami. She'd go outside and call out the calico's name, and before long, Cami would saunter up, meow, and wait to be picked up. But on the night of May 12, Cami didn't appear. Wiesinger didn't think too much of it and headed back inside. When the cat was still missing the following morning, though, she began to worry. She took her dog out for a walk in Cutler Bay, south of Miami, and encountered an agitated neighbor who told her there were a number of mutilated cats around a nearby lake. Wiesinger went to investigate and found the carcass of one cat that had been mutilated. A little further along, she found another one; it had been skinned and its skull was smashed. Later that day, she finally found Cami in a neighbor's yard. "Her head was crushed, and her eyes and nose were missing," says Wiesinger. "You could see her eye sockets, and her face was gone."

According to police, Cami's killing was the ghoulish handiwork of Tyler Weinman, an 18-year-old who's been dubbed the "cat serial killer." He was arrested two weeks ago on charges of mutilating and killing 19 cats across southern Miami-Dade County over the course of a month. The killing spree terrified cat owners, bedeviled police investigators, and triggered a communitywide manhunt. Now that it may be over, the rampage leaves this Florida community, and animal lovers everywhere, struggling to understand how anyone could commit such savage behavior.

What most struck authorities was the brutality of the slayings. One woman who lost four of her cats in rapid succession described the grisly condition she found them in. The first "looked like he'd been stabbed up and down with an ice pick," she said, declining to be named out of fear that she'd be targeted again. The second suffered a broken neck and looked like it had been wringed like a dishcloth, leaving its front and hind legs pointing in opposite directions. The third was missing a quarter of its face, including an eyeball and its tongue. And the fourth had been skinned from the waist down.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/204932

[Hans Olo]

Don't get me wrong. I think what that guy did is perverted, pathetic, a crime, no debate from me...

BUT, and I like big BUTS and I cannot lie:

A couple of mutilated cats is nothing compared to what the meat industry does to animals every single day. Think pig, cows, chicken, the list is long. Every single one of us, especially the ones who eat cheap meat from the supermarket, is guilty of atrocities against animals on a massive scale, let there be no doubt about that.

Note, I'm not saying we shouldn't eat meat. I mean, sure, mankind could survive without meat, but that's beside the point. What I'm saying is we are HYPOCRITES when it comes to animals.

I am not going to start a big vegetarian debate, please let's not do this in this context - it doesn't really fit. But please, think for a minute, why are we (rightfully) disgusted by the deeds of this guy, all the while we are chewing on a big piece of animal that has probably lived under the worst conditions imaginable, pumped full of drugs and growth hormones, treated like some machine part in an industrialized environment and has been in pain every second from birth to slaughter?

Granted, we kill most of them for food, but since only a tiny fraction of what we consume would be necessary for mankind's survival, we should admit we kill them for luxury and for the taste. That's not so different than killing the for fun. At least, that's my opinion.