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Torture the camel in the tent Sunday, May 18, 2008 By John Brummett Now that the proposed creation of a felony for first-time torture of a dog, cat or horse has arisen again in state political and legislative discourse, let me warn the casual observer. Do not be duped by the banal what-if scare tactics of opponents. They profess to fear the camel in the tent, and they insist on the right to torture it. It always goes something akin to the way it went the other day at a legislative hearing. Sen. Sue Madison of Fayetteville, bless her kind heart, presented her bill for such a felony. She got it out of the Senate last time, but the Farm Bureau killed it in the House. She said the time had come. She said public support was coalescing. She said the key was to make clear that torture is an act of pure and vicious meanness against a helpless animal. So Rep. Chris Thyer of Jonesboro, who knows better, came in with the inevitable what-if. Let's say, he proffered, that he was out riding his beloved and favorite horse. And let's say the horse broke down in or about its leg. Let's say his beloved horse was writhing, helpless. Let's say Chris, out of passion and good animal husbandry, shot the horse dead right there. Apparently he packs for a ride. Let's say someone saw him. Why, he could be brought up on this felony and hauled down to the big joint. Please. First of all, as Madison's daughter, Eva, a lawyer and Humane Society of the Ozarks board member, shot back, they have animal cruelty felonies in only 45 states, and in not one of them has any poor sonofagun been taken to jail for a mercy euthanizing of a broken-down horse. And I would add: Show me the popularly elected prosecuting attorney in rural Arkansas who would bring up the local state legislator on a felony for a mercy-shooting of his favorite horse. Show me. Name one. And I'll show you an elected prosecuting attorney who has been run plumb out of the state. Here is the real opposition to such a felony: -You have people whose cultural constitution simply doesn't value animals and opposes the very concept that we would take as seriously as a felony any treatment of an animal. -You have people, particularly in rural areas, who abhor the pest of stray dogs and cats on their property. They think it's all right to, well, dispose of these creatures as they see fit. It's a property-rights thing with them. -You have those who are abnormally and unreasonably fearful of animal rights activism and that camel in the tent. They are approximately as sickened as the rest of us by some of what they hear and read. You know, sickos skinning and barbecuing a neighbor kid's pet Lab, for example. I'm not making that up. But they think such a felony could lend itself to overzealous advocacy by some of these animal-rights freaks, and, perhaps, prove problematic for farmers and rural folks going about their normal law-abiding activities. The best news, then, and the biggest, is that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who pins his gubernatorial ambitions on a cultural connection in rural Arkansas, says he's going to try to draft a clear and properly restrictive animal cruelty felony and present it for the next legislative session. This man is a hunter. He is a good old boy. This could be like Nixon opening relations with China. ------- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
