I ask again, was the example that you so elegantly skated around in my post entirely wrong or not? If it wasn’t then kindly lay off now. Here is my example, quoted for your ease:
Actually, I’m not aware of anything, quadratic formula or otherwise, that equals “bannana”. 
The part of the story that gave me the greatest paws was that they shrinkwrapped the cat. Kinda gives the impression they were trying to hide the evidence and didn’t have just a whole lot of respect for the thing in the first place and which could also bring their original motivation/empathy into question.
Zabali, that original paragraph you wrote was somewhat confusing. It was unclear if you were saying that if a crime is “really bad” in some way that it becomes a federal crime.
Felony-murder doesn’t necessarily mean that the crime becomes federal either, unless the felony or murder were against a federal law. If I rob the 7-11 and kill Joe the cashier while robbing, it’s a state crime. If I rob the 7-11 and kill a federal agent, it’s federal, because murdering a federal agent falls under federal jurisdiction.
Just the fact that I commit felony-murder doesn’t make it a federal crime. Some very mild crimes are prosecuted in the federal system because that’s the jurisdiction it falls under. It’s not that the crime itself was unusually bad or cruel.
True enough, though at least in Kansas, if you commit “certain” felonies while in the process of another felony, than this makes it a “Capital” crime. (“Capital” is equivalent to “Federal” isn’t it, they send you to the Fedral penitentiary if convicted of “Capital” crimes.) This is what I was trying to get across. If this is true, than it’s not at all unreasonable to posit that the people charged with not “just” animal cruelty, but Fedaral charges of animal cruelty must have done atrocious things. Maybe shooting the critter on Federal land with a gun from the Wal-mart stockroom in such a way that it was in terrible pain and died a lingering death and they didn’t get it medical attention, but instead “toyed” with it while it was helpless and died in fear and agony?
I’m not a lawyer but I think you are still misunderstanding things.
A capital crime is not equivalent to a federal crime. A capital crime is one punishable by the death penalty.
As I explained before, the situation you describe (“Maybe shooting the critter on Federal land with a gun from the Wal-mart stockroom in such a way that it was in terrible pain and died a lingering death and they didn’t get it medical attention, but instead “toyed” with it while it was helpless and died in fear and agony?”) would almost certainly not make the crime “federal.” Being a federal crime has nothing to do with how mean the people were while committing it.
The reason why “certain” felonies in Kanasa are capital crimes is because they are most likely felony murders. It doesn’t mean the person was unusually cruel while committing the murder. They might not have committed the murder at all, or done anything except stand there, and can still be charged under the felony-murder rule.
This makes perfect sense to me. You boss tells you to go out and shoot something, that’s exactly what you should do. Everybody is in agreement with that, no?
Oh wait, you mean your boss isn’t a commanding officer in the armed forces? Your boss is a manger at Walmart? I didn’t know they had their own arm of Murder Inc.
That’s so cool. Ima open up my own Walmart. There are a few canaries I want offed and some squirrels on my fire escape that I want to give some lead poison to.
The canaries can get shrink wrapped but I think I’d like the squirrels put through a meat grinder instead.
If it’s not cruel to shoot a deer, an elk, a bear, or a squirrel then I fail to see how shooting a cat can be called animal cruelty. I live in a rural area and for the past two years I’ve had problems with cats and dogs pissing on my vehicles. It might not bother me so much if they just peed on the tires but some of those little bastard felines climb on the truck and piss on the windows and hood.
I’m getting a bit tired of these felines and canines hanging around my property. They don’t have tags but they appear to be reasonably groomed and fed so I’m pretty sure they belong to someone. That’s the only reason I haven’t shot one of them yet but my patience is running out. There’s no animal control to speak of and I’m not going to spend a lot of time interviewing neighbors to find out who may own the cats. So I fear that it will soon be open season on cats and possibly dogs.
Marc
Why do the dogs get a semi-pass? Just wondering.
P.S. If you were a manager at a Walmart you could have a stock clerk do it for you. Don’t forget the shrink wrap.
The dogs aren’t pissing on his truck hood.
The cat piss smells a lot worse and the dogs can’t pee on the windows of the truck. Or maybe they can but they’re polite and refrain from doing so. I’ve managed to indentify the male cats and I’ll target them exclusively.
Marc
The CNN link has been changed - from they’ve been charged with “federal animal cruelty” to “felony animal cruelty.”
I suspected the whole federal thing might be a typo. http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/30/cat.killed.ap/index.html
I heard on the news on the radio earlier tonight that the two employee’s used a pellet gun that was provided to them by the manager in question. If this is the case everyone involved should get the animal cruelty charge.
If they shot and killed the cat with one shot and without unnecessary suffering I don’t really see the problem.
Feral cats can be very aggressive and destructive.
If they used a pellet-gun they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
There was no clear evidence that this cat was feral. It might have been a misplaced pet. Only taking it to a shelter would have sorted it out for good. The article didn’t say anything about the cat biting or scratching anyone, it was just hiding, probably because it was scared (and with good cause). For all we know, it could have been microchipped; Walmart wouldn’t have the ability to detect a microchip.
I don’t know much about guns; why are pellet guns worse than other guns?
Unless you live out in the middle of nowhere (I did, and gunshots around the few houses wouldn’t go unnoticed, far off shots were hunters) you’ll probably be in for a visit from the cops. If I heard one shot (several were target shooters) from my neighbor’s yard I would look into it. Most would call the cops and let them deal with it.
Hit a cat with a shotgun (no, I have never done it). It is dead, no suffering there. In fact, I’d assume you’d have quite a mess to clean up.
Hit a cat with one pellet. Hurt the cat badly. Hit it in the eye, ear, or some other sensitive area and you’ll make it suffer for a long time before it dies.
They shouldn’t have shot it with anything. Calling animal control takes less effort and doesn’t give you huge fines or get you in the police blotter.
It was indeed a pellet gun & I think that’s the reason for the felony animal cruelty charges.
I certainly think they should have tried every means available to coax it out, and if that failed, called Animal Control. But if AC wouldn’t come out to handle it, then I wouldn’t rule out taking the cat out with a quick clean shot.
BUT KILLING IT WITH A PELLET GUN?!?! HOW MANY FRIGGIN SHOTS DID THAT TAKE!?!?
Continuity error- a regular gunshot could kill a cat quickly, it would take a lot of pellet gunshots over a long time to kill a cat.
Yeah, this is what really pisses me off. It’s just one more example of Walmart trying to function as some sort of independent city-state, skirting the laws of the land to avoid interference from the government. If I didn’t already boycott the place, this would be the final straw. Can’t wait to see what my non-boycotting, cat-loving boyfriend will have to say about it when I tell him tomorrow.
Actually, depending on the pellet gun, it would be suited just fine for killing a cat. There’s three levels of velocity/pressure, if I’m remembering right, for the guns they sell at the store. 300 feet per second, 600 feet per second, and 1000 feet per second. I know that my 600 fps .177 caliber rifle will kill a rat with one shot from about two hundred yards. As will the 300 fps .22 rifle. I suspect a 1000 fps will do just fine to kill your average cat at close range, and do it humanely. I don’t like the idea, but in the interest of the truth, I should point out that Wal-Mart does sell said gun and it is suited for the task.
That said, I was kind of wondering if using a store-owned gun had any relationship to the federal charges. If it was a real rifle, I could understand ATF related charges, but not for a pellet gun.
I do most of my shooting with a pellet gun these days. Bothers the neighbors less. Mostly target.
Someone mentioned above that “federal” had been a typo; they were actually charged with “felony” charges.