The story, Cat scratch retaliation gets very ugly, by Diane Williamson ran yesterday, Tuesday, June 23rd and has so far recorded 135 comments on the paper's website. It begins with a cat attacking an Irish Setter and subsequently scratching its owner as he tries to protect his dog. It ends with the dog owner killing the cat several days later. It is a really unfortunate combination of incidents and it raises so many questions about what is right and what is wrong, one can't help but wonder if this is a moral conundrum worth discussing with your kids over the dinner table.
The odd part of this is that the police have done nothing. Any killing of an animal out of rage is wrong, period. But if that fact is as obvious as one expects it to be, why don't the police care?
June 30th - update
UPDATE ON WORCESTER TELEGRAM STORY - click this link to read a June 28th update by reporter Diane Williamson on this story. The man who killed the cat was in fact charged with one count of animal cruelty.
Meanwhile, local community members created this blog: http://justiceforli
I stand corrected about the neighbors not doing anything. Ditto the police.
Comments
What do you mean what is right and whatis wrong. The guy smashed a cat to death in front of a seven year old girl and other children. Call animal control. Do not kill a cat until the stick breaks. WHAT are you talking about?????
CAT KILLER IN FRONT OF KIDS OH, WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG????????????????????????
What a horrible story. You're absolutely right, the police, and society at large need to take steps to punish and prevent these terrible crimes. Thanks for writing about these issues and bringing them into the light of day so more people can understand these horrible crimes. Your work is greatly appreciated.
Could you explain the nature of the conundrum? I don't see the moral ambiguity.
In this instance, what we are seeing is that the neighbors did not act, the police do not care, people verbally decry the action and nothing changes. That is a moral conundrum.
I might add that it is a symptom of a larger, awful problem. Thousands of cats being euthanized in Massachusetts because people dump them without a second thought. Between 10,000 and 20,000 cats a year are killed, humanely mind you, because they are homeless. Does that make you feel better or worse than the story about the nut who kills a cat because he is angry? Perhaps the death of one cat makes people feel worse because it is easier to sympathize with than a 5-digit statistic.
I belong to a very small group that has helped to save 112 cats in the last 15 months. Not just small groups like ours are going begging for volunteers, but big groups like ARL and MSPCA need more foster homes. How do we get people to care enough to step forward? Write horror stories? Sadly, the effect is fleeting to nonexistent.
the reason the police didn't do any,is because of a corrupt cop named officer GRAY, for some reason officer Grady didn't want to put in three witnesses.
It's really obvious what Mr. Foley's motivations were. He became bitter because the cat scratched him or whatever, initially. But it also reflects his utter ignorance. I usually note this kind of behaviour in 16 and 17 year old boys...Foley came back to teach the cat's owner an imagined lesson of some sort. He simply made many wrong tragic choices..one being that he chose to get angry and bitter while taking it personally...all from a cat
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