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Magistrates in Sunderland heard yesterday that a resident threw his neighbour's cat from the sixteenth floor of a block of flats after having read an April fool article in a tabloid newspaper. Louise Wickham, prosecuting, told the court that a fictional report in The Sun described experiments carried out at the University of Poomamaloo, Australia, to determine the height from which a domestic cat could survive being dropped. For the defence Dharma Patel said that Vincent Vuggard, 19 and unemployed, had been drinking heavily following an argument with his girlfriend when the incident took place. Vuggard denies two charges of animal cruelty, two public order offences and criminal damage. The case continues.

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IMHO the University of Sunderland should devise experiments to determine the height from which a local hooligan can survive being dropped!
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 06-20-2003, 05:49 PM:
 
Leo, that is too mean to drop that guy...he would probably die when he hit the ground and splatter his pea-brain all over the sidewalk.

I suggest they take a rope and tie his balls to the ledge before they drop him. That way, hopefully he will not hit the ground...you know, sorta like bundge jumping....

>>> Phil
 

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Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 06-20-2003, 06:05 PM:
 
My understanding cats can survive a fall over ten stories, because it gives them time to go into a relaxed state that minimizes damage. They almost glide down. It makes no difference if tis 10 stories or 100. However, much less than 10 stories, they will probably die, because they don't go into that relaxed state yet and are still in panic mode.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-20-2003, 07:02 PM:
 
There hvae been alot of cat and dog mutilations here in Salt Lake City for the last year or so, mainly in the so called posh "Avenues Area". There also seems to be some connection between whats going on here and similar mutilations that are occuring in Denver. An $85,000 dollar reward has been offered for ANY info leading to the person(s) doing these cruel acts.
Mark
 

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-20-2003, 07:32 PM:
 
I like Phil's philosophy. But they should make sure the rope is at least four feet short of touching the ground.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-20-2003, 09:09 PM:
 
Yes, cats CAN survive falls of many stories for just the reason stated. However cats are less likely to survive from shorter falls of (I think) less than three. Again, it has to do with time needed to "prepare" for the fall.

All this aside, I think most people would consider this a gedanken experiment... Something that you only THINK about in a hypothetical way but not really do. I don't know what possesses people to make them take it any further.

Stop and think, people! Even IF the cat survives it will probably have to go to the animal hospital! There's $$ involved there. If the cat doesn't survive there's cleanup involved! YUCK! Don't forget about the law and the fact that it's just plain STUPID, not to mention cruel!

Jeez!! Don't these clowns realize that the cat is somebody's PET?! How would YOU feel if you had to tell your little girl that her "Fluffy" died a horrible death because some J-bag got all liquored up and tossed the cat out the window?!

Y'Know what I'd to to the stupid SOB? I'd haul him in by the hair on his nut sack and make him apoligize to the kid for killing Fluffy!

Then I'd get a couple of hard, pipe-swinging "Brothahs" to go after his Johnson with a pair of pliers and a blow torch!
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 06-21-2003, 05:02 AM:
 
Cruelty against animals is basically the same thing as against children, women, or in general any person or creature that is weaker than the torturer.
Only weak people with serious problems do that for the obvious reason of taking out their aggressions on those who can`t defend themselves.
Many serial killers have started out as animal torturers. Which doesn`t mean that every animal torturer will become a serial killer.
But it is in principle the same if a kid in school beats the smaller kids, if somebody tortures animals, beats his wife, or kills people and chops them up. There is no boundary line - it is a gradual transition.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-21-2003, 12:56 PM:
 
Many people believe cats and dogs are here on this earth just for our entertainment value and abuse. IMHO, anyone who willingly hurts or kills animals "just for fun" has a sadistic streak of evil in them.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-21-2003, 03:24 PM:
 
Well, the result of the case was on the radio just now. He was acquitted of the animal cruelty charges - magistrates accepted the defence argument that the cat would have died instantly, and thus didn't suffer any cruelty (in the UK criminal offences deemed to be 'minor' are tried by a panel of three magistrates - i.e. no jury)! The criminal damage was to the parked car onto which the cat fell, for which he was convicted, given 50 hours' community service and ordered to pay the owner compensation.

I'm no animal rights extremist but there's something seriously wrong with a legal system which says that putting a dent in a car roof is a criminal offence, but that deliberately and gratuitously killing an innocent animal is not.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-21-2003, 05:47 PM:
 
I think someone needs to find the cat-killer and do what a certain Harley-riding friend of mine calls a "walk around" on the guy's car. Since he dents the roofs of other cars with falling cats this kind of thing would be well deserved on him.

To explain the "walk around," when a motorist acts like a dumbass and nearly blows a biker off the road the biker could retaliate in this matter. He catches up to the motorist at a stop light. He dismounts his motorcycle and walks up to the vehicle. He then proceeds to kick massic dents in all the doors of the vehicle in a circular walk around. Then he gets back on his bike and continues to his originally intended destination.
 

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Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 06-21-2003, 06:41 PM:
 
Why do people torture animals, it's not right. I hate to see animals being treated unfairly. I get out raged everytime I hear about a dog being beaten or starved or a hundreds of cats and dogs lock up in some ones house.

These people who do this need to be put in prison. It dusgust me how often this happens. These assholes need to be treated just like murders. Thrown in prison for life.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 06-22-2003, 07:00 AM:
 

quote:

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Why do people torture animals

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Please refer to my post above.
 

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 06-23-2003, 06:56 PM:
 
While no one in his right mind will condone this guy's stupid act, i would not equate causing pain to an animal on the same level as causing pain to kids.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-24-2003, 01:58 AM:
 
I don't think anyone would say harming an animal is as bad as doing harm to a child. Still, people who hurt or kill animals solely for entertainment value or just because they don't care have a real mark of evil running in them.

I would say the same kinds of sick folk would have little problem in killing a person either. As Michael mentioned, most serial killers practice for awhile on neighborhood pets before moving up to killing people.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 06-24-2003, 03:15 AM:
 
Indeed. According to former FBI profiler John Douglas (I have read all his books, so I know what is going on in the mind of every one of you), many violent criminals fantasize about torturing or killing people for a long time before they actually do it. Usually triggered by stress situations like loss of employment, family or girlfriend problems. Until they actually hurt people, they often hurt animals as these are more helpless and the legal implications are less severe. Because these people all have that in common: they are all cowards.
 

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Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 06-24-2003, 10:34 AM:
 
There was a story here a couple weeks ago about some b*@stard 13 year old kid that went up to a litter of kittens and threw them all up into the air. Two of them died, and one is in really bad shape. I think it has since recovered somewhat. They said the owner of the cats cornered the boy about it, but he showed absolutely no remorse.

I'm not really any animal rights activist or anything, but this kind of crap really makes me sick. I love my dog to death, and if someone tried to do something like that to her, you probably wouldn't see any more posts from me because I would be in prison for beating the ever loving out of who did it.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-24-2003, 10:43 AM:
 
Some links showing the links between animal cruelty and infamous murderers and rapists:

Violence Link

Animal Cruelty

Psych Comment

BBC Article
 

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