Animal cruelty really pisses me off

As you can tell from my avatar, my dog is really important to me. Other people's dogs are really important to me. We might go so far as to say that all dogs are important to me. Although to a lessor degree this sentiment extends to cats and other pets as well. As much as I love my doggo, it is just unbelievable to me that there are so many cases of animal cruelty around the world.

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This is why it struck so close to home when i was recently berated by an anonymous stranger on FB for "being friends with an animal abuser."

I had no idea what he was talking about but apparently someone I knew 25 years ago when i was in high school had been charged in two counts of animal cruelty. Obviously I had no idea and this "friend" was someone that was just a random friend "add" that I am sure all of us are guilty of. I had not spoken to him at all (in FB or otherwise) for over 2 decades. I have never even met his wife and kid. It took some digging because these stories don't really make headlines if it is just some unknown person from Virginia, but I finally found the article.

https://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/news/martinsville-residents-charged-with-dog-s-death-starvation-of-another/article_058f4ef0-13ab-11e9-bc0c-0f62ab96be35.html

This is horrible that anyone would do this: Just leave town for weeks and not put ANY food and water out? I feel bad if i leave my dog for more than a few hours in a row just because she is sad when i go, I likely give her entirely too much food and treatie-pies.

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Obviously, this has made me re-evaluate my friendship with the guy even though after 25 years of not even speaking to one-another, I don't think you can really call us friends just because of a list on FB.

I just can't imagine being the type of person or a couple, that are so selfish that they could do something so heartless. Starving to death has to be one of the worst ways to go. They are actually in court today, and to be honest, i hope the courts throw the book at them. I don't know if they should do jail-time but they certainly should never be allowed to have a pet again and I really think that Child Protective Services should be looking into how it is that they look after their child. How good of a life will they give their kid if they care so little about life that they can starve a dog to death with no remorse.

I would imagine in court they will come forward with tears and a bunch of bullcrap, but there is no way that anyone can justify going away for weeks and call this an accident.

Recently a law has been introduced in Virginia where certain cases (and this one would be included) animal cruelty would be a felony and I certainly think it should be. I just don't understand why people who are this careless or selfish would ever get a pet in the first place and furthermore, in places like Virginia, you can always drop your unwanted pets off at Animal Control or contact someone inside the ASPCA and they will (normally free) take the animal off your hands and find a new home for it.

completely inexcusable behavior and despite my past with the guy, I hope he is convicted harshly