Md. Man Admits Burning Kittens to Death

[Herman Munster]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/14/D8LD29BG0.html

A man pleaded guilty in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend's four small kittens, which were tossed into a fire pit after the couple argued.

Robert Tomlin, 22, of Smithsburg was sentenced Monday to 1 1/2 years in jail for aggravated animal cruelty. Washington County Circuit Judge John McDowell suspended the sentence except for the 134 days Tomlin has served since his arrest. In the plea bargain, charges of assault for allegedly striking former girlfriend Kelli Ann Green and destruction of property were dropped.

"Taking defenseless animals as you have, and destroying them ... there is no excuse for that," McDowell told Tomlin. Washington County prosecutor Robert Veil said Tomlin had been drinking July 2 and Green left after he hit her, leaving her ear bloody.

"When she returned to the residence, she heard a hissing in the fire," Veil said, and discovered the burning corpses of the kittens. She said Tomlin told her from jail that "he should have finished what he started."

[immerlinks]

1. Word has it

The police arrested him working at Steele campaign headquarters.

[USMA Dem]

2. Barely a year and a half?

Come on! I for one think he should get 15 years.





























Per kitten.

[Maru Kitteh]

15. DAMN straight! And while we're at it I'd like to know why the HELL

the other charges were dropped? I swear to God, we hate animals in this country but we value women even less!

I think this sadistic bastard deserves to be set on fire. Not enough to kill him, that would be too easy.

[RoyGBiv]

36. Preferably 2nd degree burns ...

Over his whole body ... the kind that blister and are extremely painful for quite a long time.

[Mr_Spock]

3. That's yukky, though in some parts of the world...

They'd be saying "pass the soy sauce".

We kill cows regularly - try that in certain parts of the world.

I'm not condoning such vile behavior, just struck me that some people might consider that food :rofl:

[jgraz]

5. Sorry, but burning kittens alive is psychopathic behavior

Cows don't (or shouldn't) suffer when they are killed for food. This guy should be burned at the stake.

[Mr_Spock]

8. I think my joke was in poor "taste"

:rofl:

Sorry, I almost wretched when I read the title & had to turn away, then I got the urge to be devious :rofl:

I'm bad sometimes... :D

[barb162]

24. he's a truly sick, sick fuck

How can anyone, other than a psychopath, do this?

[Maru Kitteh]

26. Cows don't suffer when they are killed for food? Are you kidding me?

No. You are kidding yourself.

The suffering starts well before they are forced up a chute with electric prods to face some sadistic brute with a retractable bolt gun. Cows are social animals that form strong bonds like dogs and people. They make friendships and bond deeply with kin. Their terror begins when they are loaded onto open trucks and driven up to hundreds of miles in every imaginable weather condition to the feedyard and then the factory killing floor. Many times they freeze to the sides of the trucks they are shipped in and must be hacked away from the walls with hatchets. This is neither illegal or uncommon. Their journeys separate mothers and children, and I can tell you they never stop crying.

I live in cattle country, my family have been farmers for generations. I know what I speak of, I have seen horrible things, suffering so bad I thought I couldn't bear it.

Cows are skinned alive. It happens every day in the factory killing abominations we call "meat packing" plants. Not every cow, but enough to be horrifying and disgraceful.

[jgraz]

32. You're not the only one who grew up in farm country

Wisconsin born and raised, and I've seen a lot of what you talk about, both with cattle and hogs. I said they "don't (or shouldn't) suffer", which is different from saying that none do suffer. There's a reason I never buy factory-farmed meat of any kind.

But no matter how you look at it (refrained from saying "how you slice it"), slaughtering animals for food is NOT morally equivalent to burning them alive for the express purpose of killing them and watching them suffer.

[skipos]

7. That's why I don't eat any animals. Cute ones and ugly ones. nt

[jgraz]

9. I understand, but...

please don't try to find a moral equivalency between eating meat and what this piece of shit did.

[skipos]

11. Don't worry, none found. nt

[donco6]

17. We don't burn them alive. Sheesh.

You're not serious about that comparison are you?

[Mr_Spock]

21. No, see my other posts

I was diverting attention as I could not bear to think about the reality of such a horrible act.

[donco6]

22. Thank god.

I have a real soft mushy middle for animals. And seeing someone treat them badly just makes me angrier than anything else I can think of.

This guy has no soul.

[MrSlayer]

4. He should be set on fire.

Or given a much harsher sentence than time served. People like this are very sick.

[Dangerously Amused]

6. Oh great, let's suspend his sentence

...and get him circulating in the general public again. Because everybody knows that psychopaths never start out by torturing/killing animals first, and never really mean it when they threaten to finish off their last victim. Why, just look at our God-fearing pResident George and his childhood fondness for blowing frogs apart with firecrackers. See how well he turned out? Not a cruel or violent hair on his head!

[tularetom]

10. You might say my priorities are backasswards but I

get as pissed off over a story like this as I do when a kid is abused or killed by some perv. I'd strongly advocate the death penalty for this subhuman piece of shit.

[kestrel91316]

12. Hmmmm. Well, guys, if somebody wants to snag this wretch and deliver him

to me personally, I know just what to do to teach him a lesson he'll never forget.

Bein' handy with a scalpel and all..........

(this is, of course, sarcasm and jest, for the enforcer-types out there.....)

[Nicole]

13. Only 134 days served?

That's ridicules. That asshole needs to be locked up longer than that. Much longer.

[barb162]

25. several years adn not be released before he got a lot of therapy

but I think you can't treat psychopaths

[Nicole]

28. Agreed

Therapy with fire seems appropriate to me.

[barb162]

29. that eye for an eye stuff has its points, doesn't it

the pain and fear those little furbabies endured in their very short and totally innocent lives....

[jgraz]

14. We really need to reform animal cruelty laws

No way this piece of filth should be walking around free. No one should be allowed to inflict that kind of suffering on any living creature.

[barb162]

23. what a sick bastard

you're right

[Coventina]

16. DAMN! Why did I click on this thread?!?! WHY!?!?!?

:cry:

[Mr_Spock]

19. That's why I had to make a really bad joke

I can't let myself think about how awful that must have been.

[RoyGBiv]

31. I'm asking myself the same ...

I knew better, but I did it anyway.

This saddens and infuriates me all at the same time. The most violent I have ever been in my life was when, as a kid, I caught another neighborhood kid swinging a kitten around by its neck to try to break it. I picked that fucker up by his neck and threw him against a brick wall ... and I don't remember much after that. I just know his dad had to pull me off him and that the kid was scared shitless of me ever afterward.

That kitten lived, btw, to the ripe, old age of 18.

Damnit ... I was about to go to bed, and now I'm going to have to go watch a funny movie or something.

[susanna]

18. I am absolutely certain...

that Judge McDowell realizes that cruelty and sociopathic behavior as relates to animals usually leads to other destructive behaviors - sometimes even humans!

Oh, wait - if he did realize that, this individual would be serving a REAL sentence.

I must say, I am usually an optimist. Then I actually read the story...

[jgraz]

20. Here's hoping some animal lovers find this guy

And they have a can of kerosene and a zippo.

[Kool Kitty]

27. I'll second that.

Rotten bastard. He should rot in hell.

[Triana]

30. Here's another one of these types in the making...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=229&topic_id=5107&mesg_id=5107

The person the above link refers to is extremely abusive and needs anger management counselling. Without it, (and maybe even with it), (s)he is destined for the same behavior, I fear, or something near it. Personally, I can't fathom how anyone can be so cruel, angry or not.

How do they get there?

:wtf:

[Hippo_Tron]

33. The current Majority Leader of the Senate also killed cats but somehow he isn't in jail

[RoyGBiv]

34. Someone call Dexter ...

Immediately.

FUCK. I am not a violent person, but I would be sorely pressed not to beat this man within an inch of his life with a (burning) 2x4.

[madmusic]

35. All the links are right here in this thread

Just put them together and we have... a police state. Read one post to the next to the next and we have a new reason for the death penalty. And they are real reasons based on real emotions. With some I nodded my head and agreed.

It's a chain reaction, and there are hundreds of these all over DU and on every other message board across the country, and on the news and in the newspapers, and they cover just about every crime we can think of, because there is always the extreme to detonate the mob. And then the mob calls for laws based on their emotional response to the extreme, and the chain reaction continues until the logical conclusion... George W. Bush.

Who also didn't mind executing people.

Just like you.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is more fascinating. This must be so ingrained in human nature that there really isn't any point in condemning it. There is hardly any point in questioning it. All we can to a marvel in awe, because, as in all tragedy, there is something beautiful.

[Pushed To The Left]

37. I would definitely give him more time!

He should be in prison for domestic abuse alone, let alone killing four of his girlfriend's pets in such a sadistic manner! Killing a person's pets seems like one of the most mean-spirited and vicious things one can do. Some serial killers start out by hurting and killing animals, so this should not be taken lightly. Plus, he talked about "finishing what he started". Are we supposed to believe this piece of garbage is going to be rehabilitated in a year and a half? We lock up people for smoking pot, while people like this get light sentences. This country's priorities are backwards!

[HuffleClaw]

38. four months and a bit per kitten?

seems rather excessive to me. people have gotten less for sexual assault.