A local family has an autistic son. He was only capable of sign language. The family found an african tortoise. After failing to locate an owner and told not to release it into the wild by Fish and Game they adopted it. And the little boy made friends with 'Bob'the tortoise and began talking. And Bob disappeared. the mother posted flyers and received a phone call stating 'Bob' was taken to recreate the recently aired episode on DISCOVERY of a military survival expert killling a turtle for food. He demanded money to reveal Bob's whereabouts. The woman met the man who took off on a bicycle. And there was Bob under a bush. And her little boy ran over to discover his head,neck and legs were slahed and his shell stabbed repeatedly and shattered. Bobs in a Santa Barbara hospital,still alive, his care already in the thousands of dollars.

Track this story in the news.

I hold that same belief and it's reaffirmed almost daily.

While it might be hard to prove, according to the last article, perhaps Bear should pay the vet bill.

Pete

I'm going to refine my old personal idea a little bit, and now say that all US citizens should be allowed one free kill a year, no questions asked...

what a shame...

I hope they catch the guy and slap him with felony animal cruelty.

Unfortunatly it happens a lot. Bored kids capture cats, dogs, wild animals a lot and torture/kill them for fun. growing up in the country I have heard them tell the stories, seen the results from them. Then you have the people who get bored with their animals/pets and drop them off someplace. We picked up a third cat because my in laws decided they didn't want him anymore and were going to drop him off on the other side of town (and they wonder why I won't let them babysit).

Yeah sure, you should form vigilantes but "...where's it gonna end, Briggs? Pretty soon, you'll start executing people for jaywalking. And executing people for traffic violations. Then you end up executing your neighbor 'cause his dog pisses on you lawn."

Throw it back on his lawn, that's what I used to do. Did it right in front of him once, so fresh it was still steaming, he didn't say a word...

Lol... yeah that seems like something i would do..

It works very well. Once when a guy walking his dog along our steet allowed him to poop on our lawn and then just strolled on, I went out, scooped it up with a plastic bag, and caught up to him. I tapped him on the shoulder and handed him the bag of warm poop, and said, "Here you go. If you ever need a baggie, just knock on the door."

He never has walked the dog past the house again.

Frank 2135

I posted this not only in disgust, but because there may be a social connect to a public personality and programme in this forum and website's genre. We hear it all the time; a child sees a wrestling match and kills another child slamming her around. A TV cop show has the bad guy pouring bleach over a crime scene and now a bottle of bleach seems to be mentioned in several recent murder/abduction, sexual assault cases. And then people cite freedom of expression or the comment by Jessie Ventura that if you don't like it just don't watch. In our community there are disclaimers for legal liability. And some responsible instructors know well that if even a handfull of people started practising some of these skills some not insignificant damage to our wild areas would follow in short order. How many people have gone out to the desert and lopped up a 100 Y/O cactus to test their Klingon survival axe, taken one sip of the bitter juices and walked away- or worse yet decide the cactus was sick and tried it on 5 specimens? This is what I found once on an archaeological survey with a wannabe Rambo bent over vomiting.We live in 'The Information Age.' If I am injured by a defective product from the old 'Industrial Age' I can pursue legal redress. If information is being packaged as a product, the authors need to think beyond residuals. When you come off like Bear your going to inspire same. We don't need this.

I absolutely agree, but why only one?? Maybe they should open the season on hoods and felons. We certainly have more than enough to go around. Not the time or the place for that discussion however.

I was thinking much the same thing. Probably not Bear, but one of his devoted followers and supporters.

There is a Unique Hell for people who dump pets. It's not as nice as the Special Hell.

I just sent an e-mail expressing my displeasure with this whole situation. If enough viewers respond, maybe...just maybe the word will trickle down to Bear.

http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations

True, one month out of the year should be "National Improving the Gene Pool Month" during which it is open season on anyone who abuses animals, children, spouses, the elderly and the homeless.

Animual cruelty is everywhere. Check out any of the stories from Pasado's Safe Haven and you'll see why it is so important to make animal cruelty a felony in as many states as possible. You don't even have to like animals that much to see how dangerous people like this are to a human community.

When I was a kid we lived at the Air Force Academy, and a neighbor of ours would shoot neighbors' fenced-in dogs with a BB gun when the owners were away or inside their houses. This was a fully grown man with a wife and son, and he wouldn't just torture animals, he'd mess with other people all the time. From what I heard he got away with lots of stuff because no one could completely prove anything and his father was a Colonel or something.

Some people you just can't turn your back on.

This thread encapsulates the spectrum of social responsibility. At one end, you have well meaning spectacles exercising influence on impressionable minds. Then the other end has people who willfully decide to be socially egregious, whether inspired by other well-meaning protagonists, or simply as a result of some creative thinking of their own volition.

I'd say that folks like Bear ought to think a little bit more about the message they are going to deliver vs. that which they would like to think they are portraying. Others, such as the fine, upstanding citizen at the Academy that shoots his neighbors' dogs with a bb gun just because he can, should be taken out and compassionately horsewhipped behind the shed, with the understanding that he needs help in overcoming some childhood trauma or other psychological phenomena which would otherwise make him a victim.

Then there are truly evil people, for whom a 240 grain piece of lead is their one and only reprieve. Self-inflicted would be preferable.

If the owner of the tortoise was contacted by someone demanding money for its return, isn't that extortion? Isn't that a crime, even today?

If someone stole my dog and then offered to return her for cash, I would call the sheriff's department and ask if they would tag along for the payoff. Would they do it for a dog? Probably not. Would they do it for a Lamborghini or Ferrari?

Am I allowed to protect myself from an extortionist when the police refuse to do so?

Sue

The gene pool needs alot of clorox

This is always an emotionally charged issue. I don't believe in harming animals "just because I can". My neighbors cats to the North use my backyard like the Ho Chi Min trail to get to negihbors house to the South. Reason for the travel, she has a multitude of bird houses and attracts alot of birds..naturally of course the cats are inclined to snack. I tend to let this behavior go because I am a hunter myself. However, increasingly these cocky animals have decided it would be better to just camp a little closer to the meal and have taken to lounging about on my vehicles, squalling on the front porch at night and leaving coughed up fur balls and little presents everywhere. My first inclination is to just pack them off to my hunting lease and let the coyotes have their way with them..I mean after all coyotes are hunters to...but after reading several of these posts. I guess the proper place to start is just a simple discussion with the owners.

Curious if the autistic boy continued to speak even after this horrific act by a bunch of thugs.

citrus peels and caustic soaps like Ivory, Lifebuoy etc.

Wait until is snows and the cats use the snow pile on your back porch as litter
My parents cats would do this. Dig a nice little hole in the snow, do their business, then cover it back up.

That's odd, mine never have. Although, mine also have the sense to stay out from under the edge of the roof in winter.

Try coyote urine scent. Or fox urine.

Cats are smarter than most humans, they don't go were things that go bump in the dark are.

A friend of mine raises ducks and geese in his back yard. On occasion one of the neighborhood cats come prowling, discovered the little goslings and ducklings, and made a habit out of terrorizing the poor little things. Now bear in mind, these birds are pets that usually imprint on my friend and will follow him around the yard day and night. They are also an investment, as they will also end up on the kitchen table. I know, that seems foreign to many, but we both grew up in FFA and 4H communities and have a different take on life than some.

Anyways, he would live-trap the cats and take them to the animal shelter. One such cat was recovered by the owner, who brought it back to the neighborhood and allowed to roam free again, and it subsequently picked up where it had left off with killing my friends birds. Having had his fill of losing pets to unkept cats, he caught this one (again), and instead of taking to the SPCA, he decided to duct tape the cat's torso with several wraps, then send it down the road. That was the last time he saw that cat. I imagine that, while the cat and the owner survived the ordeal, neither one enjoyed removing that duct tape much.

Some folks (and critters) have to be taught a lesson the hard way. Neither my friend nor I are inclined towards hurting animals unnecessarily, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Had it been me, I reckon I more likely would've just killed the cats for predation instead of turning them in, probably because I am more used to putting down pets than my friend is.

Anyone else here have to do the "Old Yeller" routine? Kinda tough sometimes to have to take a pal you've known for over a decade out for one last trip to the big forest. I've always felt that I kinda owed it to them to help end their pain when the time comes, but knowing that doesn't make it any the easier. Then there's the livestock routine, and you learn a hard lesson about not getting too attached to that young calf your uncle had you help him raise all summer. Sure is a weird feeling to call an 800 lb steer by name and have him come walk over to you and lick your hand right before you're gonna do him in and dress him out. Guilt is a foul seasoning on any cut of beef, but you'll end up eating it just the same.

There's a survival lesson in there too. A whole lotta people on this planet still live like that, and many who wish they could.

I'm not sure I quite understand exactly what you're trying to say. I think what you're saying is that there's a big difference between killing your own pet/livestock for food or killing a predator, even if its some one elses pet, for harassing livestock and someone kidnapping a persons pet with the intention of slaughtering it for food (or some sort of amusement).' The latter is a depraved action stemming more from a blood lust not a need for food or desire to learn.

My family has raised and slaughtered (or had slaughtered) livestock since I was six. And I have no problem with my uncle killing pet dogs that pack up and attack and kill livestock. And I've held several pets, my own and other peoples, while they were put down when I worked at a vet clinic. Killing an animal is often called for. But killing for amusement or bloodlust is repugnant to me. I'd be inclined to treat the person who kidnapping the tortoise more like the cat in your post since that's what their behavior is in my mind.

I reckon something like that. There's killing because we have to or because we need to, then there's just plain evil. Senseless destruction in any form is insanely wrong, and cannot be tolerated. It gets to be contagious.

Wow, a new use for duct tape!!!

Please keep in mind that I am a cat person, I had one once for 18 years (got old Pinky when I was four years old), and I put her out of her misery myself (as in no Vet) when the time came. Easier for her, hardest thing I ever did...

Pretty much the same as my thinking. What they did to that tortoise is inexcusable. People who'll do that won't have any qualms about moving up to more severe crimes. The cure for that sort of malice has to be just as extreme as the crime, but that's just my opinion.

NightHiker - I've got a paintball gun...good idea. Unlike a BB, shouldn't penetrate and lives a visable reminder to the owners. I like it.

IronRaven - I'm not sure a domesticated cat would recognize fox urine as a bad thing...but then I'm not an expert.

Chris - So how does the soap thing work? I had once heard that they don't like cedar or red pepper flakes...so I mulched the flower bed and sprinkled it with Red Pepper...no dice...they pranced right through.