Poll: Legal responsiblity

[Eyclonus]

http://news.theage.com.au/world/australian-boy-7-feeds-animals-to-crocodile-in-nighttime-spree-20081003-4tgf.html

So what do you think? Other than it being a perverted version of one of those Kid's Heist films?

I personally believe in option 2. Cruelty to animals is almost the universal sign that someone's going to grow up and put a powerdrill through a woman's skull and make nice catsuit out of her flesh.

If you vote for option 4 please state your own opinion.

 

[Jaythulhu]

As I think I've stated b4, I work for the rspca. I see the results of humanity's cruelty towards animals on an almost daily basis, so I have no sympathy or empathy for the perpetrators. Lock them all up and toss out the key. Scum is scum, whether their victims are human or animal.

 

[devilondemand]

It's videogames fault! Ban them!! He only did it because he played the level in GTA where you have to kill all the animals.

But seriously, blame the parents.

 

[NeedAUserName]

It's videogames fault! Ban them!! He only did it because he played the level in GTA where you have to kill all the animals.

Hey! don't forget harvest moon, or Croc.

 

[Eyclonus]

Hey! don't forget harvest moon, or Croc.

What about Pitfall?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Break his neck then toss him to the Croc.

Won't teach him anything but it'll make a great cautionary tale to tell other potential micreants.

At the age of 7 he knows what he's doing, or he's got mental issues so severe that he is incapable of understanding right from wrong. Either way the end result should be his being locked up and given the right help. The parents should go the same way too, what kind of person let's their 7 year old wander alone at night?

 

[Eyclonus]

Given that this is in the badlands of the Australian interior chances are the kid's mother probably sniffed petrol after using up all the other narcotics and booze so he probably is a little on the crazy side of things. What I am surprised is that he was able to do it all in one night and not get detected by the staff. Then again this is central Australia so the staff were probably drinking heavily to cope with the fact that they were in central Australia.....

 

[Airhead]

For me this isn't animal cruelty in itself. It's not as if the crocodile eats broccoli, right? Some animals have to die one way or another to keep the croc alive. Law of nature. If someone keeps a big snake as a pet and feeds it mice, is he a criminal? Or if you buy some meat for your dog or cat. Maybe you don't kill an animal yourself nor feed your pet a live one, but death is death.

The kid probably enjoyed the act of feeding though, and that doesn't speak well about his psyche. Than again, children do cruel things and grow up to be ordinary people. Cruelty is not an obvious sign of a mental disease. Perfectly healthy people can do mind-numbingly cruel things in certain circumstances, as some real-life cases show.

Him being 7 years old, I have some doubt whether he fully understood the consequences of his actions. A 16-year-old shouldn't be able to get away with that excuse, but just 7? He might have realised he was doing something wrong, but not neccesarily that he was commiting a crime. It's hard to say from just this short article.

He will be punished anyway, though. The law doesn't matter here. His parents are going to get the bill for all the damage he did and I'm sure they will be quite pissed.

So in this case - freedom, because what other option do we have? Make the kid pay a fine? Put him in prison? How would a 7-year old survive in prison? Institutionalization? I'm not a specialist, but as I said, that the kid did a bad thing doesn't make him a future psycho-killer.

 

[Ragnaught]

I am in Australia, I was around and saw this article come online, my mother used to work for the police and as such I know what the laws are here and some of the details. It happened in the evening, not late at night, around 6pm local time, the cameras confirm this as the place has people there from 6am (about sunrise at this time of year) and there is light. The kid can't be touched by the law nor identified. There has been a lot of debate over this issue here for quite some time as a lot of people are using kids to get away with other crimes as they can't be touched by the law, only removed from unfit parenting with lawyers blurring the line for unfit to their heart's content. The animals killed, fortunately none were endangered, just hard to track and get hold of. Estimated at $5,500 Australian to replace them plus transport costs (MSNBC's Article about it).

The Kid can't be hit by the law but I've got to say there needs to be a specialized prison for people like this and some mental help, sad thing in the current police force we have is underfunded and under appreciated. The Northern Territory where this occurred is perhaps the best policed region in the country to population but that's because there are so few people out there. The kid needs to be punished and likely the parents if it turns out to be negligence on the parents behalf, if the kid escaped from his bedroom with his parents unaware for example to go on a crocodile feeding rampage then the parents shouldn't have as much responsibility as reasonable action was taken for the care and supervision of the child then the finger should not be pointed at them.

I've seen some pretty horrible things in my time done by kids and parents alike, both to humans and animals, I think it's absolutely appalling but we've got to look at the bigger picture here, if it's just a kid got out of his parents supervision and wanted to feed a crocodile, that wouldn't be as bad sure he did do a crime, did do things very badly but he should be taught a lesson of right and wrong in this case... He did however kill some animals with a rock, possible mental issues, in that case the child needs help.

The MSNBC article is more detailed, the link is below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27005221/

Ragnaught

 

[Ragnaught]

The "kid" fed other zoo animals to the crocs, not just any animal, not something raised as food stock, but expensive rare animals.

The animals weren't all that rare, read my above post and read the MSNBC article.

Ragnaught

 

[Amnestic]

The "kid" fed other zoo animals to the crocs, not just any animal, not something raised as food stock, but expensive rare animals.

The animals weren't all that rare, read my above post and read the MSNBC article.

Ragnaught

Rare in terms of how many there are in the world? Perhaps not, but the article you quoted states:

bashing three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo's beloved, 20-year-old goanna,

Sure it may not mean anything to you, but if the goanna of 20 years was really beloved enough to merit a mention, obviously it's quite unique to the zoo keepers.

I'm not normally one to develop bonds with animals, I felt little to nothing when my cats were hit by cars (separate occasions), but I can understand why the people who work at the zoo might form bonds and attachments to them. It's not just "an animal", for some people, obviously, it's more than that.

Also,

Although none were considered rare, some are difficult to replace,

 

[GothmogII]

All of you voting/saying prison or institutionalisation, aren't you being a teeny bit harsh? I mean, as short as that article is, it doesn't even say he was torturing them. What was he pulling their legs off one by one? Poking their eyes out? All it says is he was throwing them in, that sounds to me like he was trying to feed the damn thing!

And how the hell do anyone of you know this was done maliciously? The child is 7 years old, how do any of you know he -didn't- think that's what the crocodile ate? I mean, beyond the quote "surveillance camera footage showed the child scaling a fence to break into the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in central Australia on Wednesday" it makes no mention as to the child's state of mind, or that he himself made any statements on the matter, so why are you all crying Ed Gein and envisioning some kind of cackling monster impaling cute bunnies on a stick?

Sure, he -should- be punished, but prison? An institution? Seriously? Skk...

I will quantify though, -I- don't know he -isn't- any of those things either, but that article gives me little reason either way, so I don't have any reason to assume the worst.

The "kid" fed other zoo animals to the crocs, not just any animal, not something raised as food stock, but expensive rare animals.

Nominally I don't outwardly disagree with you Khell. But...is that your justification for eating meat (if you do ofc), because it's bred specifically for food, it's a-okay, because there's more, who cares if they're killed? Guess this is one of those one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic kind of things huh?

And don't mistake, I'm not bashing either eating meat, or saying we shouldn't try and conserve endangered or rare species, just that, if that's your arguement as to how it's an awful thing (which, it was mind you, just not -that- awful imo), then it seems pretty weak to me ^^'

 

[roo18]

Hey! don't forget harvest moon, or Croc.

What about Pitfall?

Or Zoo Tycoon... Or is it just me who liked letting the lions make friends with the zebras?

 

[OneHP]

Sounds to me like he was imitating a feeding show similar to those done at wildlife centre's for the entertainment and education of the public. He fed the croc with whatever was on hand, which just happened to be some rare animals. You could even go so far as to say that killing the animals before the feeding was a more humane act than letting the croc kill them.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

Well, I would definitely have to say the child needs to be removed from society.
It stated in the article that a turtle was one of the animals fed to the crocodile...Alligator?
Even a lion can't kill a turtle. So the kid would have had to perform some pretty gruesome acts to kill a turtle. The only option is to remove him from society until he has proven that he can be a future funtioning member of society.

Oh Western taboos of the flesh.
How I love your hypocrisy.