North Carolina made national headlines back in 2010 when the General Assembly passed “Susie’s Law”, so named for a puppy that was rescued in Greensboro after having been set on fire and abandoned by her owner. Thanks to “Susie’s Law”, anyone convicted of cruelty to animals can face up to two years in jail. Of course, to us animal lovers, two years is not nearly enough time for an abuser to spend behind bars, but it’s better than no time at all. Unfortunately, stricter sentencing doesn’t seem to discourage really sick people from doing really sick things to animals.
Last year an individual snuck into Martin Luther King Park in Statesville and proceeded to use ducks for target practice. He also beat some of the ducks over the head and cut the feet off of others. A total of 43 ducks were tortured and killed that night. Then there was the 19-year-old Winston-Salem man who was arrested for electrocuting squirrels, and cutting off the ears and noses of other animals while they were still alive. Perhaps there’s no way to stop this kind of behavior, but I wish the General Assembly would at least re-classify animal torture from a Class H felony to a Class B felony, so that these sick abusers might stay locked up for eight years instead of two. Having said that, I am also concerned about another form of abuse which is on the rise, and that is animal neglect.
Here in the United States, an animal suffers some form of abuse every 60 seconds, and each year, more than 10 million animals die from abuse. One such case involves a High Point woman who was charged with animal cruelty last month. Police discovered the woman’s dog locked in a crate. It had been starved to death. Also last month, a Lexington woman was arrested on charges of felony cruelty for failing to care for her dog after it had been struck by a car. The dog suffered a broken back in the accident, and the woman was advised by a Davidson County Animal Control officer to get the dog to a veterinarian. Instead, she let the dog suffer. Neither of these women deliberately tortured their pets, but neglect is still cruel, and it is still abuse.
I suppose it’s tempting to profile all animal abusers as low-life, uneducated sickos, but that’s not always the case. Take, for example, NFL superstar quarterback Michael Vick, who, along with his dog-fighting buddies, tortured and killed a number of pit bulls at his Virginia farm. Vick is far from a low-life criminal. He was college-educated and quite wealthy. Or how about the upper-crust millionaires who run their doped-up racehorses into the ground, then sell them for dog meat? And then there’s the Iredell County Commissioner who operates Zootastic Park in Lake Norman. He has repeatedly been cited and fined for all sorts of neglect, including last month for allowing several of his animals to suffer from frostbite, and earlier for allowing maggots to eat into the flesh of three wolves. These folks, like Vick, certainly don’t fit the profile of the local redneck who gets off on torturing animals. And that brings me to a story that CNN broke earlier this month about a form of animal abuse that goes on at the highest levels of government.
The US Army’s Public Health Command recently reported that horses belonging to the storied Caisson Platoon have been seriously neglected for years. These highly trained horses serve at military funerals, and escort the caskets of presidents and other dignitaries. They also provide security for Washington D.C. “in time of national emergency or civil disturbance.” But behind the scenes, the 60 Caisson Platoon horses suffer from poor quality feed, moldy hay, parasites, and a host of other unspeakable conditions, including having to stand in their own excrement “in tiny mud lots scattered with gravel and construction waste.” Two of the horses died in February of this year, and during an autopsy, one of them was found to have 44 pounds of gravel and sand in his gut.
When questioned about the neglect, Col. Patrick Roddy, who commands the Old Guard unit (which includes the Caisson Platoon horses), blamed the neglect on lack of adequate space and funding. No doubt Roddy’s assessment is correct, but he, and everyone else who had anything to do with oversight or caring for the horses, should be dishonorably discharged and prosecuted for animal cruelty. The Caisson Platoon horses are a national treasure, but then, so are all animals. They all deserve the best possible care, and they all deserve the swiftest possible justice for their abuse.
Animal Abuse Occurs in Many Forms and at All Levels
North Carolina made national headlines back in 2010 when the General Assembly passed “Susie’s Law”, so named for a puppy that was rescued in Greensboro after having been set on fire and abandoned by her owner. Thanks to “Susie’s Law”, anyone convicted of cruelty to animals can face up to two years in jail. Of course, to us animal lovers, two years is not nearly enough time for an abuser to spend behind bars, but it’s better than no time at all. Unfortunately, stricter sentencing doesn’t seem to discourage really sick people from doing really sick things to animals.
Last year an individual snuck into Martin Luther King Park in Statesville and proceeded to use ducks for target practice. He also beat some of the ducks over the head and cut the feet off of others. A total of 43 ducks were tortured and killed that night. Then there was the 19-year-old Winston-Salem man who was arrested for electrocuting squirrels, and cutting off the ears and noses of other animals while they were still alive. Perhaps there’s no way to stop this kind of behavior, but I wish the General Assembly would at least re-classify animal torture from a Class H felony to a Class B felony, so that these sick abusers might stay locked up for eight years instead of two. Having said that, I am also concerned about another form of abuse which is on the rise, and that is animal neglect.
Here in the United States, an animal suffers some form of abuse every 60 seconds, and each year, more than 10 million animals die from abuse. One such case involves a High Point woman who was charged with animal cruelty last month. Police discovered the woman’s dog locked in a crate. It had been starved to death. Also last month, a Lexington woman was arrested on charges of felony cruelty for failing to care for her dog after it had been struck by a car. The dog suffered a broken back in the accident, and the woman was advised by a Davidson County Animal Control officer to get the dog to a veterinarian. Instead, she let the dog suffer. Neither of these women deliberately tortured their pets, but neglect is still cruel, and it is still abuse.
I suppose it’s tempting to profile all animal abusers as low-life, uneducated sickos, but that’s not always the case. Take, for example, NFL superstar quarterback Michael Vick, who, along with his dog-fighting buddies, tortured and killed a number of pit bulls at his Virginia farm. Vick is far from a low-life criminal. He was college-educated and quite wealthy. Or how about the upper-crust millionaires who run their doped-up racehorses into the ground, then sell them for dog meat? And then there’s the Iredell County Commissioner who operates Zootastic Park in Lake Norman. He has repeatedly been cited and fined for all sorts of neglect, including last month for allowing several of his animals to suffer from frostbite, and earlier for allowing maggots to eat into the flesh of three wolves. These folks, like Vick, certainly don’t fit the profile of the local redneck who gets off on torturing animals. And that brings me to a story that CNN broke earlier this month about a form of animal abuse that goes on at the highest levels of government.
The US Army’s Public Health Command recently reported that horses belonging to the storied Caisson Platoon have been seriously neglected for years. These highly trained horses serve at military funerals, and escort the caskets of presidents and other dignitaries. They also provide security for Washington D.C. “in time of national emergency or civil disturbance.” But behind the scenes, the 60 Caisson Platoon horses suffer from poor quality feed, moldy hay, parasites, and a host of other unspeakable conditions, including having to stand in their own excrement “in tiny mud lots scattered with gravel and construction waste.” Two of the horses died in February of this year, and during an autopsy, one of them was found to have 44 pounds of gravel and sand in his gut.
When questioned about the neglect, Col. Patrick Roddy, who commands the Old Guard unit (which includes the Caisson Platoon horses), blamed the neglect on lack of adequate space and funding. No doubt Roddy’s assessment is correct, but he, and everyone else who had anything to do with oversight or caring for the horses, should be dishonorably discharged and prosecuted for animal cruelty. The Caisson Platoon horses are a national treasure, but then, so are all animals. They all deserve the best possible care, and they all deserve the swiftest possible justice for their abuse.