Lock the cell and throw away the key!

I know there are more pressing things to worry about in the news (I’ve been mulling over some of the outrageous things that TOTUS and his band of merry kool aid drinkers have done) but the recent arrest of the teenager who has been killing beloved pet cats in Miami area just got me angry enough to type yet again.

Look at the two faces at the bottom of this page—my cats Ryan and Cammi. I have others I love just as much—Scottie and Matt, a pair of tabbies. These cats get food before I do—if money is short, I’m eating ramen and cheese, they still get their Royal Canin 33 premium food. My cats are important to me, and I am sure the owners of the cats carved up in Miami loved theirs just as much.

The authorities began to investigate this case when residents and pet owners in two neighborhoods, Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay, reported finding beloved pet cats killed and mutilated in their yards. There have been 30 cat deaths in the neighborhood, and 19 of those have finally been traced to a single killer—18-year old Tyler Hayes Weinman. I’m not going to post his mug shot, but suffice it to say he sure doesn’t look terribly upset that he’s been arrested. Basically, he looks smug.

Four of the cats killed lived on the same street as Weinman.

Reporters who went to the suspect’s home, presumably to interview his mother, found a welcome mat with pictures of pawprints on it, and the message “Wipe your paws,” along with a sticker near the door informing fire and law enforcement that a feline resided in the home.

Weinman graduated from high school this spring. Instead of looking for a summer job, he’s in jail on a $154,500 bond. Guess he decided his summer job would be killing cats …

If there is anything in this horrible crime to be happy about, it’s that this kid killed those cats in Florida, a state that’s a bit tougher on crime than here in California. Weinman is charged with 19 counts each of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body, and four counts of burglary related to the deaths. If convicted, he faces pretty much life in prison (158 years by one report).

Here in California, we’d be asked to “understand” him and be told “he’s sick and needs therapy.” He might do a bit of time for burglary, or some DA would let him plea to something that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

I am not a tort-crazy person either—I hate the idea of frivolous law suits. But in this case, I hope that the owners of those poor felines get together and sue the socks off of this kid and his custodial parent. I also trust that the Miami-Dade County DA remember a lesson from Serial Killers 101—that many serial killers start out by practicing on small animals. I am sure a Florida jury will also do the right thing—guilty as charged. Put this kid in the big house with the big boys—I think pet killers rate as high as rapists and child murderers.

Next time I promise to rant about TOTUS. Or my father’s greedy widow. Whichever irritates me the most first…

AP story about the arrest of this despicable kid here.

P.S. Cammi cat is feeling much better, too! She's back to her little princess ways, demanding a can of Weruva or Tiki Cat (fish flesh) canned food twice a day!