A few miles away from St. Joseph, an unknown person or group of people held down a cat and shot the animal in the face with a BB gun.
Who would do such a thing?
The report was published in a local newspaper, and a Sartell family still wants an answer to that question. They deserve an answer. More importantly, they deserve justice.
Animals can’t speak for themselves. They can’t tell their owners when someone is hurting them with words like humans can. Sure, they can bark or howl in pain, but sometimes that is not enough in the case of abuse.
Bottom line: Cruelty to animals should not be tolerated. Period.
The term “animal cruelty” is not an all-encompassing word. According to www.petabuse.com, it is thought of in the categories of active and passive.
Examples of passive cruelty include cases of neglect where the offense is the lack of action. Active cruelty, as it implies, includes malicious intent when a person deliberately harms an animal.
There are not many people who would deliberately harm themselves. So why knowingly hurt a defenseless animal? It is nothing short of cruel and absolutely cannot be ignored.
Even if you are not a pet owner, you — well, we — can all do something to aid in the fight against animal cruelty. The first thing to do is learn about what you can do to help prevent abuse.
ASPCA recommends some of the following abuse-prevention tips:
Know who to contact to report animal cruelty.
Get to know and look out for animals in your neighborhood.
Make the call. If no one reports the wrong in the community, no change can occur.
While one might think this is a given, thousands of crimes go unreported.
Provide as much detail as possible when reporting abuse
Talk to children about the importance of treating animals with respect.
Children learn from what they see. Parents also have to set an example for how animals should be treated. They set the tone for how their children will or will not behave when it comes to the treatment of animals.
Contact local law enforcement.
The St. Joseph Police Department can be reached at 363-8250.
Support your local shelter or animal rescue organization.
The Tri-County Human Society is always looking for volunteers. Check out their website at www.tricountyhumanesociety.org.
While there are a lot of tips to help prevent abuse, one of those tips is crucially important: Report abuse.