(NJ - US) Little sympathy for alleged bird killers (Popcorn Zoo)

[Snugglezzz at aol.com]

June 1, 2003



In Ocean, little sympathy for alleged bird killers



By ANDREW JOHNSON Staff Writer, (609) 978-2012

Lacey police Chief Thomas R. Darmody said that he received "cards with 
flowers on them, hand-written," from nice "old ladies," as far away as New York and 
Connecticut this week, expressing outrage about the May 18 Popcorn Park Zoo 
animal slayings.

"String 'em up," he said was the tone behind the letters.

"I'm waiting to see what happens," he said of a possible trial following the 
arrest last week of suspects Matthew Mercuro, Matthew Ronneberg and Thomas 
Cavanaugh.

So is everyone, it seems.

A hardened mentality has descended on the case concerning the 18-year-old 
alleged bird killers even before their first formal bail-reduction hearing.

That will take place June 6. A lead Ocean County prosecutor is expected to be 
named Monday.

The trio are currently in jail on $114,000 bail, with no 10 percent option, 
for four fourth-degree charges and eight counts of fourth-degree cruelty to 
animals. They allegedly tortured three emus, three white Peking ducks and two 
rheas, and then killed them.

Ronneberg and Cavanaugh, both of Forked River, and Mercuro, of Waretown, also 
face charges from Manchester for burglary, criminal mischief and arson, and 
are accused of stoning a goose to death at the Wells Mills County Park.

Lacey police have described the motivation behind the attacks as a "morbid 
sense of entertainment."

So, two weeks later, what do people think is the appropriate punishment for 
animal killers?

"I think they should do life, and get it over with," Popcorn Park Zoo animal 
caretaker Bill Waters said Thursday.

If that's harsh, an editorial in a local newspaper suggested that the 
perpetrators be fed to the zoo's lion.

Ronneberg was attacked by a fellow inmate at the Ocean County Jail on May 23.

Dr. Alvin Krass, chief of psychology for the Ocean County Medical Center, is 
worried about what prolonged jail time might do to the troubled young men.

There might be cause for considerable concern regarding Cavanaugh, according 
to those close to the case, who say he has been exposed to both drugs and 
violence from an early age.

Cavanaugh, according to Manchester police Detective Joseph Hankins, bragged 
about spray-painting swastikas and anti-cop epithets on an Ocean County 
business' exterior May 18.

Ted Bahr, wife of 17-year Associated Humane Societies employee Crista Bahr, 
said Thursday that his sister-in-law lived across from the Cavanaughs on 
Augusta Street in Waretown for years, before the Cavanaughs moved to Forked River.

"The cops chased them out of town," said Bahr, of the Cavanaughs.

Thomas Cavanaugh's father, James Cavanaugh, overdosed on heroin in the summer 
of 1996, and his mother Cheryl Cavanaugh went to state prison for heroin 
distribution in 2001.

Waretown police responded to the Cavanaughs' for a dead pot-bellied pig lying 
in the family's lawn, along with "a bloody shovel" in 1998.

"They hit it over the head, and then stabbed it," Detective George Thompson 
explained about the Cavanaugh family pet. "They buried it in the back yard."

Victor Innella and John Williams, friends or acquaintances of the family, 
were charged with the crime.

"You don't throw rotten kids in jail, you give them help," Krass said. 
"Sending kids to jail doesn't often end in a positive outcome."

Krass says he thinks family therapy is needed in this case, because he 
doesn't think jail time would help deter future criminal behavior, but instead, 
could set them up for worse acts.

Amy Rhodes, a spokeswoman for PETA, said that she is more worried about 
deterring animal cruelty with a stiff jail sentence, rather than saving three lost 
souls.

"We believe it warrants jail time," Rhodes said of this case. 

Rhodes notes that animal cruelty has an astoundingly high correlation to 
human killers. She cited an FBI statistic that 46 percent of all murderers had 
previously killed animals, she said.

And even Krass concedes there's a 50 percent chance of relapse into future 
adverse behavior, no matter whether counseling or jail time is ordered.

Things could get interesting soon.

According to Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Bob Gasser, "there is no 
presumptive jail sentence," when it comes to animal killings in the Garden State.

"I truly have no idea," he said about whether Judge Edward J. Turnbach might 
impose a jail sentence in this case.

Speculation becomes more difficult when considering alternatives to jail time.

Ocean County must refer felons to outside counseling because the county does 
not perform that service, Chief of Probation Ken Kerwin said, adding that the 
possibilities are endless.

Matthew Ronneberg's father, Conrad Ronneberg, said he has answered several 
mean-spirited harassing phone calls in the past two weeks.

"They deserve to be burnt at the stake," is the message behind some of the 
calls, mother Julie Ronneberg said.

"The moral relativism, I don't understand," Conrad Ronneberg said, concerning 
the meanness from strangers.

Conrad Ronneberg said he remembers his Matthew as a quiet teenager who was 
into The Who and The Rolling Stones.

Others only see the crime he may have committed.

It meant that "innocence was violated," Popcorn Park Zoo visitor Terrie 
Smith, of suburban Philadelphia, said Thursday about what the animal slayings meant 
to her.

"I don't know what to do with people like that," Smith said.

To e-mail Andrew Johnson at The Press:

AJohnson at pressofac.com

    
    

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/mailman/private/ar-news/attachments/20030601/5b564343/attachment.html