Comments on: Teen arrested in Miami cat mutilations case

By: straybaby

straybaby — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:34:05 +0000

Oy! All I can say is, I was only forced to dissect a frog! A cat would have absolutely been beyond what I could handle. I took the science course that required dissecting in summer school as I was needing very few science credits (one of my favorite subjects). Wasn’t too keen on the fact they fed the snakes while class was going on! (remember, I was a teen!)

We’ve had a couple pretty nasty animal abuse reports on the news here. “Luckily” they were isolated, not serial cases. Right now they are reporting on what a couple (in another state?) did to a puppy. Also ended up hearing a more personal case while at my CSA the first weekend. (poisoning a pup) I know enough about the law here that I was able to encourage them to take action as something would be done.

I’m glad to see they will be giving this young adult a psych eval.

By: Susan Fox

Susan Fox — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:13:55 +0000

We dissected a cat along with two human cadavers in my community college anatomy class. What I mostly remember about the cats is that one team had a long-haired white one and that when we all came back from a long weekend it had turned kind of greenish. They had to start over on another cat and really jam to get caught up with the rest of us.
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That article supports the point that I was trying to make to the hysterics on the Facebook comment thread, however idiotic the supposed possible connection to dissection is- there is no proof, there has been no trial, there has been no conviction.

Suppose that it turns out that most if not all the cats were killed by dogs, or someone’s dog. Look at the hell this kid has been put through already. Innocent until proven guilty.

By: 2CatMom

2CatMom — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:12:34 +0000

I also did the cat dissection thing in high school (same era as Gina) with no opt out. But I’ve never been physically cruel to any living creature, man or animal.

Today, I would opt out.

By: EmilyS

EmilyS — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:53:43 +0000

Stupid connection. Though being forced to dissect a LIVE frog in HS practically turned me into an AR activist, from which it’s taken years to recover. (BTW, I refused to do the dissection and got sent to the library as “punishment.” Which was way funny because I was a pinheaded intellectual bookworm… who later became a librarian)

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:37:28 +0000

For Pete’s sake, indeed. *I* dissected a dead cat in high school. No, I didn’t enjoy it. We weren’t allowed an “out” 35 years ago — it was do it or take an “F.” And what about all the veterinarians and physicians whose training involved such practices? I suppose it turned them all into sociopaths?

What an assinine article. A pox on the editor or writer who came up with it.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:20:47 +0000

Oh for Pete’s sake. If I’m reading this article right, the implication is that there is some sort of link between the fact that he dissected cats in a biology class last year and his current status as a suspect:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sf.....3275.story

I’m sorry - while I hated dissecting animals in a high school class (nowadays I believe kids can “opt-out”, but when I was in high school, you were simply expected to do it or take a failing grade) that is a shaky connection to draw at best. Sure - if someone ALREADY has some shaky components to their psychological makeup, the classroom dissections can probably “fan the flames”, as it were. But to draw any kind of a CAUSAL relationship would be at odds with the facts. As the teacher quoted in the article said, she’s overseen literally THOUSANDS of classroom dissections during her years teaching, and she hasn’t exactly been churning out sociopathic cat-killers as a result.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:04:24 +0000

Because from what you posted on Facebook it had sounded like you only cared about the human involved here and not the cats.

Comment by Kathy — June 15, 2009

Good heavens, Kathy, you’ve been a member of online communities long enough to know you can’t get a read on someone from one short post. :)

I’m glad to see you posting here, and I hope you stick around. I know you can add a great deal.

By: Susan Fox

Susan Fox — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:34:39 +0000

Make that “unacceptable (to me) level of…” Gettin’ close to bedtime.

By: Susan Fox

Susan Fox — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:32:57 +0000

My comments on Facebook were directed at people who were expressing a level of irrational, vituperative hatred against someone who hasn’t even been charged yet.

To me, horror at what happened to the cats is a given.

The alleged perpetrator was the subject of the comments I was responding to. The gratuitously explicit description of what happened to the cats was intended purely for shock value and didn’t rate a response.

The over-the-top emotional rhetoric I saw serves no one. Not the cats, their owners or the perpetrator(s). The commenters were reacting, not responding. So no dialogue was possible.

By: Leslie K

Leslie K — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:27:40 +0000

I have to agree with Gina. If convicted he needs to kept away from all animals & people. He will escalate,who’s next a small child ? I am also disturbed by the wording in some of the police comments. Cats are living feeling creatures just like people,& torture is torture. FYI if you contact the state atty’s office,don’t email. It says on their website that all email addy’s are public. Call or use snail mail.