British Justice and Its Attitude Towards Animal Cruelty

I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough to publicly make the link. Too sensitive, too close to the event. I might have thought it but I’ll admit, I’d never have written it. But all credit must be given to The Sun’s Fergus Shanahan because not only has he said it, he’s said it in Britain’s largest read newspaper.

What? What’s he said? I know you’re asking.

Well, writing in response to the (yet again) pathetic sentence handed down to a girl who drowned a the ship’s cat of HMS Belfast, Mr Shanahan had this to say:

The girl of 16 who chucked Kilo into the Thames in London after a drunken night out smirked as Judge Sue Green let her off with a supervision order.

She must also write a personal letter of apology to the crew of HMS Belfast. And that’s about it.

The judge ticked her off but said she did not think a more serious sentence, such as custody, was necessary.

That attitude — implying that it was just a cat so it doesn’t matter — is part of the reason we end up with infants like Baby P being tortured to death in our so-called civilised society.

A civilised society should not shrug its shoulders at animal cruelty.

Otherwise it takes a step away from civilisation and another step towards the barbarity that happened in Haringey.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

I hate to keep banging the same drum but I still feel embarassed by the fact that Britain idles by under the false notion that we’re a nation of animal lovers. We simply aren’t. We have so much work to do before we can genuinely lay claim to such a boast.

Let’s look at some of the facts:

State ordered killing of innocent dogs? - Check.
(Dangerous Dogs Act)

Rising Cruelty Convictions? - Check.
(RSPCA Stats)

Homeless Animals? - Check.
(Over 100k abandoned to rescue shelters)

Lenient sentences for animal abusers? - Check.
(See this very story for evidence)

Indiscriminate breeding of dogs? - Check.
(Dog breeding regulations? Ha! WHAT dog breeding regulations???)

Puppy farmers profiting week in week out? - Check.
(They’re not breaking any laws so why wouldn’t they? Some of them even get government grants!)

—

If we really, truly want to start to fix broken Britain, we’d do well to look at the way we treat the cruelest animal abusers. The links are there, they are proven. You only have to question the mentality of someone who wants to throw a cat to its death or slice a dog’s head off with a sword to wonder; “Do I really want these people mixing freely with me, my family, my pets in society?”. I know I don’t. But the laws are so weak, the State’s attitude toward these people so lenient, it’s little wonder that some can’t see the line between killing - whether it’s an animal or a person. Unless we get tough, tidy up our act, send out a message then we can expect more of the same and that misnomer about Britain being a nation of animal lovers will look more and more like a sick joke.

Author Details
Ryan O'Meara is editor-in-chief of K9 Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for dog lovers. He lives in the East Midlands with his own two dogs, Mia and Chloe. - See this author's webpage

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