Prison sentence for ruthless Husky dog killers

To:
District Court in Nowy Targ, Section II, Criminal
ul. Ludmierska 29
34-400 Nowy Targ
Poland

Cc:
Nowotarskie Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zwierzкtami (Animal Care Society)

This is a petition on behalf of the general public who is outraged by the number of savage killings of animals.

We are referring to an incident which has already got a lot of publicity: A Husky dog was tortured to death by three drunk men in the village of Lipnica Maіa, Poland. The way they did it by tying the dog to the rear bumper with a tow rope and dragging it behind their car until the dogs head was torn off is a heinous act of senseless bestiality. Therefore, we have decided to submit this petition in which we request for those persons to be sentenced to the maximum punishment provided by the law.

Article 35 (2) of the Polish Animal Welfare Act (Journal of Laws 1997 No. 111 item 724) provides that whoever kills an animal with particular cruelty is liable to a fine, non-custodial measures or imprisonment of up to two years. Article 4 (12) provides that the killer acts with particular cruelty if he takes actions which involve drastic forms and methods of killing, particularly if he kills in a sophisticated or slow manner, with the intention to increase or extend the suffering.

We believe that no one who has already heard about this incident could possibly deny that the case in question meets the legal definition of particular cruelty. What is worrying is that despite the numerous news reports of animal killings and the criminal cases that followed, no perpetrator has yet been sentenced to unsuspended imprisonment, even though the particular cruelty clause has been more than fulfilled according to the public opinion and to any reasonable person. We realise that even particular cruelty may take more or less extreme forms, yet killing a dog for fun by tearing its head off must be the ultimate of cruelty, indeed.

We must revert this trend. The law empowers the judge to pronounce an unsuspended sentence of imprisonment. So why does this not happen? What further particular cruelty does the Polish judiciary want to see? What dramatic death of an animal are we waiting for? We cannot afford to let persons who are obviously devoid of any compassion or conscience to maltreat living and suffering creatures just because a penalty is in fact fictitious. After all, it is just a fine or a suspended prison sentence to which such a crime is liable now. These are perceived by the public as an obvious non-punishment. Even if the convicts do keep the probation somehow, they revert to crime once the probation period is over. This is not the way.

The circumstances of this offence are incontrovertible. A few days before, one of the men took in the poor creature from a shelter. It is very probable that it was their deliberate intent to have this kind of hideous and inhuman fun at the dogs expense. According to the information on the Web, the dog owner testified that he had got bored with the dog and had wanted to get rid of it somehow. Such circumstances call for severe condemnation and we request for this to happen through the sentence which is to be pronounced in this case.

It is also worthy of note that many murderers begin by killing animals. This is why we believe that such crimes should be qualified as highly damaging to society. And, as such, should be liable to unsuspended imprisonment.

To summarise our petition and call for human sensitivity to evil, let me quote Peter Singer: All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals.

To repeat: we request that the persons who committed this horrible act be sentenced to the maximum punishment provided by the law.