AR-News: TX Cat Mutilation---Sample Letter

[DTanzer16 at aol.com]

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Forwarded Message: 

Subj: [AGA] LETTER / Pls Write Prosecutor re: Texas Cat Mutilation by City 
Employee  
Date: 2/29/2004 4:50:17 PM Eastern Standard Time 
From: bizshows at att.net 
To: aga at lgal.org 
Sent from the Internet (Details) 
 


 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Animal Advocacy  Diane Artemus
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 5:18 PM
 
URGE PROSECUTION OF TEXAS CAT MUTILATION - Sample Letter

Source of Info:  www.humanelines.org
Letter composed by AnimalAdvocacy

BACKGROUND: In Gatesville, Texas, the County Attorney's Office and 
city officials are being unresponsive to reports that a city employee 
tortured and mutilated a kitten on city property late last year. The 
incident reportedly occurred after two Gatesville city employees 
found a kitten in a park and brought her back to their shop to give 
her food and water. The next day, employees heard the anguished cries 
of the kitten and saw a fellow employee walk out of the shop with the 
kitten's severed tail in his hand. 

Fortunately, the kitten survived, but city officials are refusing to 
pursue charges against the alleged perpetrator. City officials have 
argued that Texas law does not apply to the kitten because at the 
time of her abuse she had no "owner." However, a cat does not need to 
be "owned" to be protected in Texas. State law prohibits 
the "torture" of any "domesticated living creature and wild living 
creature previously captured." This case is particularly important 
because it is the latest in a string of high-profile cruelty cases in 
Texas in which the alleged abusers have evaded punishment due to 
misinterpretations of the state's animal protection law. 

SAMPLE LETTER:  Please change some of the words, especially in the 
first sentence, adding a line about why this incident upsets you.  
Remember to include your name and address and please be polite.
==============================================================================
===============================================
Mr. Edwin E. Powell, Jr.
Coryell County Attorney
P. O. Box 796
Gatesville, TX 76528
Fax: 254-865-9080 (dial number; then press the "star" key) 
Phone: 254-865-8261

RE:  Prosecution of city employee who tortured and mutilated a kitten 
on city property

Dear Mr. Powell:

For the safety of all residents and visitors to Texas, I ask you to 
fully prosecute the Gatesville city employee who mutilated and 
tortured a helpless kitten. I believe that your office is obligated 
to enforce the state animal cruelty law, which includes the 
protection of captured, stray animals. 

City officials have argued that Texas law does not apply to the 
kitten because at the time of her abuse she had no "owner." However, 
a cat does not need to be "owned" to be protected in Texas. State law 
prohibits the "torture" of any "domesticated living creature and wild 
living creature previously captured." This case is particularly 
important because it is the latest in a string of high-profile 
cruelty cases in Texas in which the alleged abusers have evaded 
punishment due to misinterpretations of the state's animal protection 
law. 

As you are already aware, law-enforcement officials and mental health 
professionals consider cruelty to animals a precursor to violent 
crimes against humans. The American Psychiatric Association 
identifies animal cruelty as one of the diagnostic criteria for 
conduct disorders, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses 
reports of animal cruelty in analyzing the threat potential of 
suspected and known criminals. Experts agree that it is the severity 
of the behavior — not the species of victim — that must be taken into 
account. 

As the trail of sad examples below shows, and recent violence across 
our country attest to; it is time to send a clear message to people 
capable of intentionally inflicting serious injury or death to 
helpless animals, that such brutal and senseless crimes will not be 
tolerated and there are guaranteed consequences for those who would 
show such disdain for the law. 

I ask that the accused employee be held without bail and undergo 
immediate psychiatric evaluation and treatment and that he be 
prosecuted and sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.

Sincerely yours,


ATTACHMENT: ANIMAL VICTIMS / HUMAN VICTIMS: 
REPORTS FROM POLICE CASE FILES

Lee Boyd Malvo (D.C. Area "Sniper" and serial killer) killed & 
tortured cats as a child

Charles Cullen, ex-nurse who says he killed as many as 40 patients 
under his care at
hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, also brutally beat and 
tortured his two pet dogs.

Russell Weston Jr., tortured and killed 12 cats: burned and cut off 
their tails, paws, ears; poured toxic chemicals in their eyes to 
blind them; forced them to ingest poison, hung them from trees (the 
noose loose enough to create a slow and painful death.) Later killed 
2 officers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. 

Jeffery Dahmer staked cats to trees and decapitated dogs. Later he 
dissected boys, and kept their body parts in the refrigerator. 
Murdered 17 men.

Kip Kinkle shot 25 classmates and killed several in Springfield, 
Oregon. He killed his father and mother. Said he blew up a cow once. 
Set a live cat on fire and dragged the innocent creature through the 
main street of town. Classmates rated him as "Most Likely to Start 
World War 3." 

As a boy, Albert De Salvo, the "Boston Strangler," placed a dog and 
cat in a crate with a partition between them. After starving the 
animals for days, he removed the partition to watch them kill each 
other. He raped and killed 13 women by strangulation. He often posed 
bodies in a shocking manner after their murders. 

Richard Allen Davis set numerous cats on fire. He killed all of Polly 
Klaus' animals before abducting and murdering Polly Klaus, aged 12, 
from her bedroom. 

11-year-old Andrew Golden and 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson tortured 
and killed dogs. On March 24, 1998, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Golden 
and Johnson shot and killed 4 students and 1 teacher during a fire 
drill at their school. 

After 16-year-old Luke Woodham mortally stabbed his mother, killed 2 
classmates and shot 7 others, he confessed to bludgeoning his dog 
Sparkle with baseball bats and pouring liquid fuel down her throat 
and to set fire to her neck. "I made my first kill today," he wrote 
in his court-subpoenaed journal. "It was a loved one...I¹ll never 
forget the howl she made. It sounded almost human." In June 1998, 
Woodham was found guilty of 3 murders and 7 counts of aggravated 
assault. He was sentenced to 3 life sentences and an additional 20 
years for each assault. 

Theodore Robert Bundy, executed in 1989 for at least 50 murders, was 
forced to witness a grandfather who tortured animals. Bundy later 
heaped graves with animal bones. 

At 4-years-old, Michael Cartier dislocated the legs of rabbits and 
hurled a kitten through a closed window. He later shot Kristin 
Lardner 3 times in the head, before shooting himself. 

Henry Lee Lucas killed numerous animals and had sex with their 
corpses. He killed his mother, common law wife, and an unknown number 
of people. 

Edward Kemperer cut up 2 cats. He later killed his grandparents, 
mother and 7 other women. 

Richard Speck threw a bird into a ventilator fan. Killed 8 women. 
Randy Roth taped a cat to a car's engine and used an industrial 
sander on a frog. Killed 2 of his wives and attempted to kill a 
third. 

David Richard Davis shot and killed 2 healthy ponies, threw a wine 
bottle at a pair of kittens and hunted with illegal methods. Murdered 
his wife, Shannon Mohr Davis, for insurance money. 

Peter Kurten, the Dusseldorf Monster, tortured dogs, and practiced 
bestiality while killing animals. Murdered or attempted to murder 
over 50 men, women and children. 


Richard Trenton Chase, "The Vampire Killer of Sacramento," bit the 
heads off birds, drained animals for their blood, killed animals for 
their organs, and later killed 6 people in random attacks. One police 
officer present at the scene of the first murder, confessed to having 
nightmares about the crime for months afterwards. 

"The Kobe Killer,² an as yet unnamed 15-year-old boy in Japan, 
beheaded a cat and strangled several pigeons. Decapitated 11-year-old 
Jun Hase, and battered to death a 10-year-old girl with a hammer, and 
assaulted 3 other children in separate attacks. 

Richard William Leonard's grandmother forced him to kill and mutilate 
cats and kittens when he was a child. He later killed Stephen Dempsey 
with a bow and arrow. He also killed Ezzedine Bahmad by slashing his 
throat.

Tom Dillion murdered people's pets. He shot and killed Jamie Paxton, 
aged 21; Claude Hawkins, aged 49; Donald Welling, aged 35; Kevin 
Loring, aged 30; and Gary Bradely, aged 44. 

At 9-years-old, Eric Smith strangled a neighbor's cat. At 13, he 
bludgeoned 4-year-old Derrick Robie to death. Smith lured the little 
boy into the woods, choked him, sodomized him with a stick, then beat 
him to death with a rock. 

David Berkowitz, "Son of Sam," poisoned his mother's parakeet out of 
jealousy. He later shot 13 young men and women. 6 people died and at 
least 2 suffered permanent disabilities. 

Arthur Shawcross repeatedly threw a kitten into a lake until the 
kitten drowned from exhaustion. Killed a young girl. After serving 15-
1/2 years in prison, he killed 11 more women. 

Michael Perry decapitated a neighbor's dog. Later killed his parents, 
infant nephew and 2 neighbors. 

Jason Massey¹s killing resume began with cats and dogs; at 20 he 
decapitated and disemboweled a 13-year-old girl and fatally shot a 14-
year old boy. He claims to have killed 37 cats, 29 dogs and 6 cows. 

Patrick Sherrill stole neighborhood pets, tethered them with baling 
wire and encouraged his dog to mutilate them. He killed 14 co-workers 
and himself in 1986.

Keith Hunter Jesperson, "Happy Face Killer," bashed gopher heads and 
beat, strangled and shot stray cats and dogs. He is known to have 
strangled 8 women. He said: "You're actually squeezing the life out 
of these animals...Choking a human being or a cat--it's the same 
feeling...I'm the very end result of what happens when somebody kills 
an animal at an early age."

Carroll Edward Cole, executed in 1985 for an alleged 35 murders and 
reputed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. 
history, confessed that his first act of violence was to strangle a 
puppy under the porch of his house. 

Robert Alton Harris murdered two 16-year-old boys, doused a neighbor 
with lighter fluid and tossed matches at him. His initial run-in with 
police was for killing neighborhood cats.
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