Camrose Cat Killers

This post also appeared in the Calgary Herald Q

On Sunday, four adolescents were charged for having microwaved a cat to death. This is strange and yes, deplorable, repugnant behaviour, but what really surprises me is how blindly outraged people are getting about it. Oh, nothing pisses people off more than animal cruelty.

I am by no means condoning these adolescents’ behaviour. I think it is disturbing and creepy. What bothers me is how uninformed people tend to get on their moral high horse, jump on the bandwagon and start spouting all their fury and disgust about something that really, they don’t know all that much about.

There has been a group created on Facebook called “Camrose Cat Killers-Prosecuted them as Adults.” Without going into the grammatical errors of the title, it is clear that the site as been spawned out of pure hatred. Members are on there divulging the kids’ names and then commenting that they didn’t realize it was illegal; someone else is quoting the Criminal Code of Canada while others are declaring that letters be sent to Stephen Harper in order to pass Bill C-373. Outlandish and presumptuous comments are being made about the parents having failed in their duties, the justice system having failed in its duties, and oh here we go: now the adolescents are going to become serial killers because they used to be bedwetters. Oh, and a bundle of people are going to appear in protest on the steps of the courthouse. Or at least they would, if they didn’t have to work. And of course, pictures of people with their pets abound! They are plastered all over the place and absolutely everyone is up for a little armchair justice.

Give me a break.

We have troops being killed senselessly in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan was just assassinated; genocide occurs regularly in Africa and THIS is what people are choosing to be angry about? I’m not siding with the adolescents or condoning their behaviour; I’m not saying they don’t need psychiatric assessment; I’m not saying animal cruelty laws shouldn’t be toughened; All I’m saying is that people get irrational when it comes to pets, and they get up on their little soap boxes and start making inflammatory and unrealistic pronouncements about a “call to Arms” and the like. The truth is, isn’t it easy to be morally righteous about killing and harming animals? Yes, they are helpless and no, we have no right to hurt them. So, of course it is an outrage. And it seems as if people like nothing better than to stand in judgment and lay blame. The truth is, we have no idea what factors may have been in play.

These Facebookers are completely missing the point: You want to get the cat law changed, fine, but don’t do it from a place of hatred; that just breeds more hatred. And finger-pointing is doing nothing to actually solve the problem. All it is doing is feeding more fuel to an already large fire and spawning the idea that vigilantism is the only way to receive true justice. Maybe I should start a Facebook group of my own demanding that we pass a Kitty Gun Law so that our pets can all start packing Heat. And then I’ll move to the United States, where I would fit right in.