AR-News: The Australian on dismissal of soldiers for kitten torture

[Karen Dawn]

(The Australian takes letters at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm )

The Australian
July 2, 2004 Friday All-round Country Edition

 LOCAL; Pg. 5

 Soldiers sacked for kitten torture

 Andrew Fraser


SIX soldiers based at Townsville in North Queensland have been dismissed
from the army for torturing and killing a litter of kittens.

The army notified the men of their dismissal yesterday after they pleaded
guilty in a Townsville court in May to charges of cruelty to animals.

They admitted killing one kitten by tying it with a rope attached to the
back of a trail bike, dragging it along the ground and eventually running
over it with a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Darryl Llewellyn, 26, Brett Neville, 26, Ben Lightbody, 21, Casey Parker,
21, Geoffrey Symonds, 20, and Christopher Murray, 19, also admitted
urinating on the kittens during a long drinking session.

The remaining three kittens in the litter were killed by being doused with
petrol and set alight.

The men were fined $2,000 by the courts but this is not the end of the
matter, as the Queensland Police Force has appealed against the leniency of
the sentence.

The offences occurred at Laverack Army Barracks in Townsville on April 10
after the drinking session began in the afternoon and continued into the
night.

The federal Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Mal Brough, who is
responsible for military personnel matters, said the fact the matter had
come to public attention through other soldiers reporting the incident to
their superiors, who then reported it to police, showed many people in the
armed forces were revolted by the incident.

"There is no place in the Australian Defence Force for people with those
sorts of attitudes," he said.

The six men were doing voluntary work at the RSPCA in Townsville after the
incident and before their court trial, but the RSPCA refused to let them
return after they were found guilty.

RSPCA Queensland chief executive Mark Townend said the sentence showed the
legal system was finally getting serious about tackling cruelty to animals.

"We have to make cruelty to animals socially unacceptable," he said.
"Twenty-five years ago it was OK to drink and drive, but drink-driving is
now not socially acceptable -- and society's attitudes to cruelty to animals
likewise needs to change."

While the six men have been dismissed from the army, they still have a right
of appeal against their dismissals.