This is a first: Man gets 9 Years in prison for stabbing dog

http://www.click2houston.com/news/9592408/detail.html

Man Gets Prison For Stabbing Niece's Dog

POSTED: 11:39 am CDT July 28, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles man has been sentenced to nine years in state prison for stabbing his niece's German shepherd between the eyes.

The dog survived the November attack.

The judge issued the maximum sentence to Hugo Vargas Garcia, despite a defense attorney's plea that he is a paranoid schizophrenic.

The dog's owner, Judy Ream, and her husband testified during the trial that they saw Garcia plunge a Swiss Army knife into their 2-year-old dog's skull because he was upset by its barking. Ream pleaded with the judge to show no leniency, contending that Garcia showed no remorse.
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I can't belive it didn't die. Good, the bastard should serve all 9.

Poor bastard belongs in a mental institution, not a prison.

Glad the dog survived, but it sounds like the owner might have benefited more from the amateur lobotomy.

Would you feel that way if it had been his neices kid?

forehead because he's tired hearing her yell at him!!!!!

"Garcia did not hear his sentence because the judge ordered him removed from the courtroom for repeatedly screaming at the prosecutor."

I agree. The guy is nuts. He should be in a mental health facility, not in a prison. Like 20% of everyone in the prison system.

He'll go to prison. Serve probably the whole 9 years, because crazy people don't tend to get time off for good behavior, then be released crazier than he is today. And when he gets out, it may well be the neice's kid instead of the dog.

People don't choose to be crazy.

He needs mental help.

or the difference between a prison and a mental hospital.

He's crazy. That means SICK. That means he should have been committed, not incarcerated, which I made clear in my post.

It's amazing how many people out there STILL think schizophrenia is a MORAL FAILING and that crazy people have NORMAL EMOTIONS and THOUGHT PROCESSES they turn on and off at will!

Good gawd. Sometimes I'm ashamed to be a human being, at all.

The guy obviously isn't right in the head.

...for what, exactly? For owning a dog? For having a schizophrenic relative? WTF are you talking about?

by "learn his lesson" let some dog-loving inmate take care of him.

I wish it was even more. He's not delusional, he's a freakin' sociopath....

I think people who murder animals should be locked away forever... because they ARE sociopathic. (I am NOT talking about hunting -- although I don't care for it at all.)

behavior... not to mention what a bastardly thing it was to do to the poor dog!

I'm sure he's capable of doing that and possibly even worse to a human. Glad he's off the street. Bet his neice doesn't visit his sorry ass in prison.

where they said he was mentally ill? Sheesh.

just like in the Andrea Yates case. But for a person to do that, he must be mentally ill. In fact, if that SOB had done that to my dog, I would probably be tried for murder, 'cause I would kill him. My dog is my child.

Barking? BARKING? Dam, I hope this guy never has kids!

and been sued for damages the dog owner would likely find the dog valued at less than $1,000 (what it might have sold for) and depreciated based on its age. Having witnessed the attack the owner, however, might well have recovered damages for pain and suffering.

These kinds of stories demonstrate yet another reason why we should resist "tort reform".

An 18 year old and two juveniles from Hawley, MN doused a female snapping turtle who had come on shore to lay eggs with gasoline and lit her on fire. Twice. These morons also taped what they did and posted it on the internet. Someone from the area saw it and alerted the Hawley police chief, who recognized the twerps and arrested them. The site hosting the video pulled it, but I believe PETA has clips of it on theirs. (No big PETA fan am I!) The fate of the turtle is unknown.

I have no use for animal abusers.

will often be cruel to people too.

If his violence is caused by his mental illness then he needs treatment, but apparently he's not getting that treatment on his own. Hopefully he will now.

sentences like this for animal cruelty.

:grr:

What the hell is wrong with this country!?
Duckie

maybe they can head it off at the pass.

Violence against animals and violence against humans are statistically very related, so it's better to get the perps in the system and out of society at the earliest juncture.

Most of the time animal cruelty gets a light slap on the wrist. Studies have also shown that people who are violent to animals are far more likely to later be violent to people. This is a more than is likely to snap again and hurt a person next time. I think if we started prosecuting animal abuse cases tougher, then the rates of violence against people will also go down.

is cruel to animals. The dog obviously knew the man was sick, hence the warning to its owners by barking at the guy.

Upset by the barking? Good thing is wasn't a kid crying.

Stabbing is also, as I understand it, a very personal type of crime.

Again, I say fuck you Mr. Garcia. Enjoy the yard.

contrast that with this story:

Former Cambridge priest sentenced to four years

(snip)
A state judge sentenced a Catholic priest to four years in prison and five years of probation this afternoon after he was convicted last month of sexually assaulting a child in the 1980s.

A Middlesex jury found the Rev. Paul William Hurley, 62, guilty of raping a 15-year-old boy in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge in 1987 and 1988, according to District Attorney Martha Coakley's office.
(snip)

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/07/former_cambridg.html

Something's out of wack

then prison is not teh place for him.
but a hospital of some sort is -- he's a danger.
and i'ld say the same if he stabbed a person -- killed them even.

but if he's not -- then jail that motherfucker to absolute maximum possible.
and too bad it's the first -- i am sick of the abuse animals take and the walks that perps get.

abuse animals -- then get severe, severe jail time.

Though I do think he needs to be away from animals forever.