If setting a cat on fire and feeding it to dogs won’t get you jail time, what will? | Opinion
What was Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Nushin Sayfie thinking when she decided on no jail time for a 19-year-old who torched a caged cat and fed him to his pitbulls?
And, worse yet, what kind of message is she sending to the community about animal abuse and consequences?
Her ruling is outrageous.
Animal cruelty is a serious offense — and often times a precursor to other crimes.
Research has consistently revealed since the 1970s that childhood cruelty to animals is the first warning sign of later delinquency, violence, and criminal behavior, Psychology Today reports.
“In fact, nearly all violent crime perpetrators have a history of animal cruelty in their profiles,” writes psychologist Joni E Johnston, noting that Albert deSalvo, the Boston Strangler who killed 13 women, shot arrows through dogs and cats he trapped as a child and Columbine High School murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold boasted about mutilating animals for fun.
Closer to home, Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz posted on Instragram and bragged about killing animals. He used lizards, squirrels, frogs, and a neighbor’s chickens for target practice. The behavior was one of the many red flags in plain view that people all around him ignored or dismissed as nuisance.
How soon we forget that missing the signs leads to greater, unspeakable tragedy.
What Roberto Hernandez did was heinous — and it was caught on video surveillance. The killing is so graphic that the video was edited so that people don’t see the horrific image of the live cat on fire. And that he comes from a troubled family should be more reason to worry, not an excuse for the behavior.
But the judge said she believed Hernandez’s claim that the animal was a rabid raccoon that had been reported as attacking farm animals in the South Dade area. She ignored that a tenant who lived on the property and witnessed the killing told police she was certain it was a cat.
“I don’t think a raccoon should be treated in that manner,” Sayfie said, making to too light a case of behavior that is still wrong even if was a raccoon he burned alive. After all, Florida’s animal-cruelty law prohibits the unnecessary suffering of any “living creature.”
The judge sentenced Hernandez to five years of probation, plus 100 hours of community service instead of the 364 days in jail the prosecution was asking for. She also withheld adjudication so that he’s not considered a felon.
“I don’t think jail time is appropriate,” she affirmed.
And, to heap upon the outrage of the light sentence, she added: “I find it curious that the state is seeking jail time when apparently human victims don’t warrant the same approach.”
Really?
Prosecutors said Hernandez, who was 17 at the time he committed the crime, put a stray cat in a small cage, doused it with a flammable liquid and lit matches until the animal burst into flames. The video shows the animal writhing in agony, while Hernandez grabbed a drink and watched.
When the animal seemed lifeless, he fed it to his pitbulls, prosecutors said.
So, according to judge Sayfie, if you set “apparently human victims” on fire you can get away with no jail time, too?
Maybe in the court of her imagination.
This is some kind of world we live in these days.
This story was originally published March 8, 2019 at 1:40 PM.
