NY judge: Don't let child see dog euthanasia

[Liberal_in_LA]

NY judge: Don't let child see dog euthanasia

A woman who let a 10-year-old girl witness a dog being euthanized was convicted Thursday of child endangerment but was exonerated of animal cruelty.

Mona Kanciper, who operates a farm in Manorville, on eastern Long Island about 50 miles from New York City, faces up to a year in jail on the endangerment charge when she's sentenced Dec. 13.

Suffolk County Court Judge James Hudson said after a two-week non-jury trial that Kanciper was justified in euthanizing the dog and two others.

Kanciper's attorney, Paul Gianelli, said the dogs were an aged Saint Bernard, a Great Dane mix that had bitten a delivery man and a husky mix that had killed a cat. He said she euthanized the dogs by injecting them with a solution called SomnaSol, commonly used to put down animals.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/13/national/a134338D73.DTL#ixzz1bikbIuCD

[Common Sense Party]

1. One of the dumbest rulings I've ever heard of.

Life happens. So does death. Sometimes it's the best gift we can give our furry friends. Kids don't need to be sheltered from it. If the girl didn't want to watch, she didn't have to, did she?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. The article does not clarify, but it does say she 'allowed' the child to watch.

I can only take that to mean, she told the girl what she was going to do and the girl said 'Can I watch?'

IMO, it would be much more traumatic to have the dog led away to a back room, never to be seen again, than to watch it humanely put to sleep, particularly if it was a pet - the child would have the nagging questions of what happened to it, did it suffer, etc.

[ceile]

2. Beyond stupid.

Child endangerment? C'mon...

[Xithras]

3. Let me guess...the judge was raised in a city and never owned anything bigger than a dog.

Putting down animals is part of living on a farm. So long as she did it humanely and with a justifiable purpose, there was no crime committed. If there was no crime committed, how could it have been criminally harmful to the child?

I was probably five or six the first time I saw my dad put an animal down. It certainly puts life and death into perspective, but harmful? Not for a moment.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I live up in a city

Grew up in one..and know that. Wrong ruling.

[randome]

4. If you read the article...

...you'll see that the girl was not this woman's daughter. That being said, I think it's a stupid ruling too. And a 2-week trial? What the hell did they discuss in that time?

[MADem]

6. Non-jury trial. Apparently the judge is a bit of a nitwit. NT

[Lance_Boyle]

7. ridiculous.

Judge should be sanctioned for being a fucking moron.

It would be endangerment to let the kid assist in the procedure, but to be present for it? Asinine ruling. Coming from someone who *heard* his first horse euthanasia at age 8. I couldn't watch, but I couldn't get far enough away not to hear the thud.

[DevonRex]

8. There's not enough information in the article. It wasn't her daughter. Did the parents know?

Was the girl traumatized?

[Odin2005]

9. I grew up in a rural area and knew where meat came from early on. This is idiotic.

[FirstLight]

10. sheesh

when i was 6, my dad caught a mouse in a trap and it was still alive...

he put it outside in the yard and my grandpa went over to it and dropped a 2x4 on it to put it out of its misery.
I was definitely upset and cried for the poor thing...but i actually came to understand very quickly it was for the best.

and we later had to put down the dog and cat, and those were hard but important lessons as well...

[Angry Dragon]

23. When I first read your mouse I saw moose

and was wondering why you had to put it outside


stop reading so fast

[FirstLight]

24. ...

:rofl:

...and wonder why it would only take a 2x4 to kill it? teehee!

[Codeine]

11. Utterly ridiculous.

Death is a normal thing.

[Marrah_G]

12. This is a fucked up ruling

Honestly, we can't shield our children from every uncomfortable situation and frankly we shouldn't.

[randome]

13. It wasn't her child.

Maybe the child's parents complained. The article doesn't explain.

Just goes to show that if something seems too outrageous, there is probably more to the story.

But as I already said above, I still think it was a ridiculous ruling. Perhaps the judge didn't have a choice if the child's parents complained. But then why let your kid visit a farm in the first place?

[DevonRex]

17. Wasn't it just for riding lessons though?

I guess I can see that if a child had had a beloved pet die recently that it might not be cool to have her see this without at least the proper care and explanations being given first by the parents. And their permission, of course.

I don't know what the exact circumstances were though, since the article doesn't give enough detail. There is no way to either agree or disagree with the ruling without more facts.

[randome]

18. Yeah.

Not enough info to be outraged or not. So, instead, I'll eat lunch.

[Marrah_G]

26. The ruling is still way out of line.

The woman will have a record. Things are so upside down now. WS ruins millions of lives and are rewarded, not punished, leaders kill millions based on lies and they not punished. But hey, let a child see a reality of life or get caught with dried plant parts in your pocket and BAM-- You are in cuffs and paying forever.


sooooooo messed up

[exboyfil]

14. When we had to put our beagle down

My daughters were somewhat younger than this, and I gave them the choice to watch. They said no. Now that they are 15 and 14 they would stay with our dogs to the end.

No family pet who has been loyal should die alone with only strangers with them. The vet asked if I wanted to leave the room, and I thought he was crazy. That dog and I had walked thousands of miles together. No way was my dog going those last steps without me.

I loved that old beagle.

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. .

:cry: My old cat died recently. THinking of animals dying makes me teary

[FarCenter]

15. Poor judgement on the part of SPCA

Kanciper, who has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said she would appeal the conviction.

"It is a sad commentary about our criminal justice system that without any substantive investigation, the SCSPCA and the district attorney's office wasted the time and resources of the court and the people of Suffolk County," she said in a statement. "My reputation and that of my family and my business have been irreparably damaged by this experience."

[Myrina]

19. For those who disagree w/ ruling: is it ok then to televise exeuctions, too?

:shrug:

My beloved 14-year-old Beagle left us in August of this year and it was the absolute most painful, worst, most heart-wrenching thing I have ever done. Would I have a child - let alone a child that isn't mine - attend? HELL NO.

The dogs noted could be compared to 'criminals' who were on 'death row' for their crimes - one bit a human, the other killed a cat.
That equates to desensitizing executions, making them publicly visible and saying "oh well, its part of life". WRONG ANSWER, IMO.

[ChillbertKChesterton]

20. Executions should always be televised

People should see what their tax dollars are being used to do.

War should be covered in all of it's horrific reality too.

[TygrBright]

21. Old Yeller died in vain, I guess.... n/t

[woodsprite]

22. Our 7yo held our husky/shephard mix's head in his lap as she went to sleep.

Silver's lung was literally full of a tumor (9x13 cm) and she had a stroke on a walk around the neighborhood. She lasted just shy of 2 years after the tumor was diagnosed. We were given the choices of 'take her home and love her', or subject her to surgery to crack her ribs, remove one lung and then do chemo/rads. The vet felt that with either choice would only buy us a max of 2 yrs with her. So she had the best 2 yrs we could give her! Prednisone kept her breathing easier, natural home cooked protein mixed with Dr. Harvey's mix kept her at a lean 65 lbs.

Our son is almost 12 now and he still says he wants to be a veterinarian and do what he can to help all dogs with cancer.

On edit: Silver was our rescue and saw my family through my cancer scare. It's not fair that she died from cancer at 9yo. We only had 3 yrs. with her. :(

[flvegan]

27. Is Kanciper a veterinarian?

That's my first question.

[rug]

28. I hope no children heard about Qaddaffi's execution.

[2banon]

29. I wouldn't allow a child to witness euthanasia, personal bias

I had the experience of bringing my sick cat to the vet, assuming we were going to be leaving with 10 days worth of anti-biotics, only to be faced with the fact that he was suffering from something that was impossible to cure, and should be put down immediately to keep him from more suffering. It was my first experience and I was totally done in. I cried so hard i could barely drive. I've lost animals before, but that was the first that had to be put down while holding him. I would never expose a child to this experience.