A True Case: Killing a Cat

On February 10, 2010, the honorable judge Lia Levon, from the Petach Tikva Court, decided on the case of Mr. John Doe, who killed several cats.

The Case:

1. The accused, John Doe, born in 1991, admitted and was convicted, as part of a plea bargain in his indictment, which accuses him of premeditated crimes, possession of a deadly weapon (a knife) with harmful intent and abuse and cruelty to animals.
    
2. According to evidence presented in the indictment, between the years 2008 – 2009, the accused captured street cats, stabbed them or choked them with his own hands, thereby killing them. He would then discard the cat`s carcass in the nearest dumpster. John Doe, who is mentally disturbed, also talked about murdering people. Here ends the explanation of his actions and mental state.
    
3. A plea bargain was presented in the petition of the plaintiff`s attorney and the attorney for the defendant, to sentence the accused to 21 months` actual imprisonment, probation, a court order for probationary services for one year after release, in accordance with the viewpoint of probationary services, in addition the attorney for the plaintiff petitioned to impose a fine and the attorney for the defense asked to avoid a fine due to the defendant`s inability to work and due to his family`s difficult financial situation and thus petitioned to divide the probation according to the sections of the crime.  

   Who is John Doe?

4. According to the report of the Center for Mental Health, the defendant`s enthusiasm in taking the life of a living creature determined that the accused is extremely dangerous. The Center recommended that the defendant be supervised after his release. According to the report, the defendant has a serious personality disorder, with schizoid, antisocial and sadistic characteristics. At 15 years of age, he was hospitalized in the Geha Mental Health Center, after a violent attack on his own mother, detention and attempted suicide by swallowing an overdose of pills. He was diagnosed with depression and treated accordingly but since his release had no supervision or psychiatric care. He immigrated to Israel at age five from the Ukraine. Behavioral disorders were evident since childhood; he showed a tendency towards impulsive and hostile behavior, learning difficulties and an inability to adapt to an educational system. As an adolescent, he began to use drugs, sniff glue and Freon and drink alcohol to excess. He was expelled from school at age 16 and never held a steady job. Today at age 19, single, without a trade or skills and unemployed, he lives with his divorced parents, under the same roof. In recent years, he spends must of his time at home, cut off from his friends, surfing Internet sites that contain violence, cruelty and sadism, among other things. According to him, he began killing animals as a child and during the past year had the desire to kill a human being. He dealt with this nagging desire by killing cats on a daily basis, whose carcasses he dumped in garbage bins. It has been determined that the accused is able to plan, is aware of acceptable boundaries and understands the consequences of his behavior and is, therefore, fit to stand trial.  

   Judgment

5. The accused was sentenced to 12 months of actual imprisonment, 12 months of suspended imprisonment with a probation of 3 years from the day of his release during which he is to commit no crime of violence and the crimes for which he was punished; Court Supervision by Probation Services was ordered with his consent for the period of one year from the date of his release; in addition he was fined 1,000 NIS that would be donated to the Fund for Animals.  

My Personal Comments

The documented case is not a classic example of punishment of a human being who tortured animals. This case has overstepped the boundaries of the relationship between man and animal, especially from the aspect where the accused, Mr. John Doe, also thought to murder people.

This is a mentally disturbed person and in my opinion his place is not within the confines of a prison, but rather in another facility where he would receive intensive psychiatric care.

This case is no indication that the courts will impose long sentences for people whose treatment of animals is unacceptable and not even those who take the lives of animals.
 

Sincerely,
 

Tzvi Szajnbrum, Attorney at Law