Bits of Justice
Posted Tue, 01/09/07
This is more like it:
Queens Man Sentenced to 16 Months for Animal Cruelty
Late last month the ASPCA, in conjunction with Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, announced the sentencing of Keidel Guy for felony animal cruelty. The 20-year-old Queens man was sentenced to 16 months in prison for starving a family of pit bulls. In October 2005, ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement agents Joseph Lemos and Omar Negrillo seized a nearly dead mother dog and her emaciated pup from Guy's house after finding another puppy dead from starvation. Guy admitted to neglecting the dogs for weeks. The mother, renamed Damsel, and her surviving pup, Jezebel, arrived at our Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital near death. Both animals were successfully treated and placed in loving homes.
I would have linked directly to the text from ASPCA, but it appeared in an e-mail newsletter. I could not find the original on the ASPCA web site.
Anyway, prison sentences for animal abusers signals progress. I love animals and detest cruelty in any form. However, there are those who do not understand that people who can inflict torture on animals – living and breathing creatures who feel pain and fear – are most likely capable of dong the same to fellow human beings.
If I had my druthers, people found guilty of abusing or killing animals would face much stiffer penalties. Years, not months, should be the norm for prison sentences.