For the entire community’s safety, let’s hope that, if convicted, the man who allegedly obtained cats and kittens through “free to a good home” ads and reportedly tortured and killed them is given a strict sentencing, including jail time, counseling, and a ban on contact with animals (“Shelter warns: Avoid ‘free to good home’ ads,” Jan. 3, 2008). Psychiatrists, FBI profilers and law enforcement officials have repeatedly documented that people who are cruel to animals rarely stop there.
There is no excuse for this cruelty, but animal guardians can help protect animals by never handing an animal over to a stranger. Serial animal abusers often obtain their victims through newspaper ads, as do “bunchers” who sell animals to laboratories for painful experiments. Dogfighters have also been known to acquire small animals from classified ads, and use them as “bait” during the training of their fighting dogs.
Please, if you must part with your animal, take Ursula Goetz’s advice and contact your local animal protection organization for suggestions and help. Newspapers could also help prevent terrible suffering by refusing to print “free to a good home” ads, or at the very least, printing warnings in the classifieds about the dangers of giving animals away.
For more information, visit www.HelpingAnimals.com.
Martin Mersereau
Supervisor
Emergency Response Team People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA)
Norfolk, Va.