Whilst lolling about the vast reaches of this pit of informational despair, I found this little nugget about this kitten murdering maniac from Detriot. Now I’m sure that he’s not the ONLY kitten murdering maniac in Detroit, but HE, fortunately, was caught.
Incidents like this one simultaneously raise my blood pressure and lower my hopes for humanity. Not quite as off-kilter as the dog poisoning maniac in Portland, this “family man with a 5-month old baby who attends church and plays the guitar” is yet another example of the kind of person who cowers behind some misguided form of belief, when his actions bespeak the evil in his heart more clearly, and accuately than his proclamations of faith.
There is always, when stories like this one crop up from time to time, the hidden escape hatch that is religion. Whether the offender is recently ‘saved’ or he/she finds ‘god’ whilst in the keep of the county/state/federal corretional system, everyone looks for the back door. The reality is that religion itself does not make you a good person, it cannot ‘convert’ you from evil to good, it can only make you act in a manner consistent with it’s tenets, and only if you desire to act in such a way. The fact of this matter, IMO, is that Carlos Eduardo Valladares-Guillen is a taker of innocent lives. It matters not that the life was that of a kitten, the truth is that the kitten was no threat to him or his family, he was simply too lazy to deal with the trials of pet ownership, preferring murder to perhaps locating a shelter, or even a willng neighbour.
I hope that one day, after I’ve outlived my usefulness to society, and become just another nutcase living under a bridge, that I will encounter someone like this Carlos Eduardo Valladares-Guillen as he is passing sentence on an otherwise innocent victim, and can quickly, expediently, and permanently respond in kind.
I’m always shocked at the otherwise normal-seeming people you occasionally meet who honestly don’t understand why it’s wrong to wantonly kill or hurt animals, or don’t get why you don’t think it’s funny to do so.
So what if he attends church and plays the guitar? He also threw a kitten out of a moving car.
While I think that killing a kitten is wrong, I think we need some perspective here. The life of a kitten is not as valuable as the life of a human being. To infer that you would kill him given the chance, is an over reaction IMO.
Come on Guin, its not as black and white as that. Have you ever squished a mosquito? Killed a spider? Did it lead to homocide?
You may say that insects and spiders don’t matter, but where do you draw the line? A kitten may be further up the food chain, but they are all living creatures.
I remember seeing something about Dahmer to that effect, but I didn’t know it was that common.
My point is, human life should be valued above all others. Animal life should be valued also, but killing a kitten shouldn’t be a capital offense (contrary to what some would suggest).
Imagine a story on cnn about a guy who shoots dead a clerk in a store robbery. A man is dead, instead of a kitten. Would this story have its own pit thread?
Killing kittens and other lovable furry creatures pulls at our heartstrings and gets people sometimes more upset that stories about human murders. I’m just trying to get a little perspective here is all.
Even Hannibal Lector! Actually, I believe it mentioned it in the last book. Can anyone confirm this? I haven’t read it for awhile.
Seriously though, attacks on small animals goes to show you that the guy’s a bit of a bully who doesn’t mind picking on those smaller than him. He’s a nut.
Sam, I save human (and occasionally animal) lives for a living, been doing it for 13 years now (lucky me) and I understand the value of human life, but Guin and I are on the same wavelength on this one. The fact is that those who kill and torture animals are very much in training to become future Dahmers and Bundys. It’s that kind of thing I’d personally like to avoid.
So, you think the appropriate response to animal cruelty is capital punishment? I’ll go along with that, but you have to be the guy that explains to his daughter why a cat’s life was important enough for her to never see her father again.
They also often end up not killing people. Call me a crazy liberal, but I’m generally against punishing people for crimes they might commit.
Unlike those bastard chickens, who are all out to get us?
The guy committed a disturbing but non-serious crime, was apprehended, and punished appropriately. End of story, as far as I’m concerned.
Killing and torturing animals is often a preamble to murdering humans, as many have noted.
Consider your own experiences: did you ever kill a kitten or puppy for the fun of it?
If you answered “yes”, you’re a sicko. Sorry, but that’s the way I feel, and nothing will ever change my mind.
Although we are not in GQ, can I ask for some cites? I’m prepared to be proved wrong, but I wasn’t aware that animal torture was common in would-be murderers.
No, and I don’t think anyone in this thread was suggesting that they did. Killing a kitten for fun is very wrong, and as Miller said, the punishment seems appropiate in this case.
Vigilante-style threats (I’d string the guy up) are not really the same as advocating that the legal system take matters that far. I don’t advocate the death penalty for any offense (but that’s off-topic, so please don’t challenge me on it in this thread), but I sympathize with the urge to punish this asshole as severely as possible.
Oh, and as another thought, as a vegetarian, the though of chickens being slaughtered makes me just as sick as this story. I don’t bring this up in casual conversation though, as it’s not as widely-held of a conviction.
“as severely as possible” = Life imprisonment? Does throwing a kitten out of a car window deserve the same punishment as raping and murdering a child (assuming a state with no capital punishment)? Of course not, and I’m not suggesting that that is what you intended to say… I’m simply making the point that the punishment needs to fit the crime.
I meant in fantasy-land, in real life, I think the punishment is about right.
As for the daughter not seeing her daddy for a while, I think it’s a good idea. I know that if my daddy had done such a thing when I was a kid (or now, for that matter), he would be pretty much ‘dead to me’ as the saying goes…
