Three Teens Charge with Death of Parrot

[paper_lantern]

I'm not sure if anyone has heard about the tragic death of Ozzi the African Grey in Slave Lake, Alberta? Three teen boys were charged with animal cruelty and theft. Apparently Ozzi was stolen from his back yard and was tortured to death.

Here is a page to the Ozzi's FB page, and a link to the news report/video. I'm so sickened by this, there are no words. That poor, poor family.

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/three-teens- ... -1.1863609

https://www.facebook.com/Justice4Ozzi?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/events/6503823 ... 9/?fref=ts

[Wolf]

I am so ashamed that this occurs. My heart bleeds for Ozzy !

[Pajarita]

Yes, I've been following this. People are so sick in the head nowadays... I know everybody says that there were always sickos but I really don't remember ever been so many of them and so very 'out there' - if there were, they were careful not to do anything to call attention to themselves.

[Angie]

Oh wow, this is so horrible. I don't understand how people could harm animals, I really don't. And you are right, Pajarita. Nowadays I've been reading and hearing about so many cases of animal cruelty, it's just sick.

Here in my country there has been some sorta sicko who mutilates horses by slashing their throats with a knife. Just makes me so angry. Especially when these people get caught and get these ridiculously light sentences, or even just a fine.

[Harpmaker]

What a terrible thing to happen to poor Ozzie! My heart goes out to his family!

To be fair, deliberate animal cruelty is often concentrated on cats, especially black ones. (I had a white cat run down by one of my daughters' classmates-She found out when he BRAGGED about it at school the next day, but she would never tell me who). Parrots are more often stolen for cash.

There have always been a lot of terrible "training methods" and cruelty used on working animals-dogs and horses mostly. Some of those go on today--I still feel sick when I think about all the beautiful but clearly underfed Arabian horses I saw in Egypt in the same traffic with the cars at rush hour. They were closed in on all sides, had noses in tailpipes and the drivers were whipping them for not being able to move.

We have rightly become more sensitive to animal cruelty in all it forms, which may be why it seems to be getting worse, but it may also mean we are improving. And perhaps more stringent penalties will accelerate that. Any ideas?

[Angie]

I don't know what penalties there are there, but here it's just.. sometimes I feel like people don't care that much about animals.

I would love to see this aspect change in my country to giving people more than just a fine. A jail sentence + a ban on owning animals ever again. Probably hard to check on, though..

[Harpmaker]

I did think about suggesting a ban on animal ownership, and a registry like we have for sex offenders. But then I remembered that men are added to the registry for things like peeing into bushes, which is tacky, but doesn't mean they are ever going to hurt anyone. By analogy, the politicians would soon be adding the Parrot Wizard to the animal cruelty list for managing his birds' diets. As soon as they add too many things to a registration list, something that was intended for good becomes meaningless or actively harmful.

[GreenWing]

The story made me sick.

No matter what Canada's justice system does to punish those horrible teens who did what they did, and they'll probably just get a slap on the hand, nothing will ever soothe the family's hurt, nothing will ever bring Ozzi back, or take the horrors away that she faced in her last moments. IT IS SICK. A TRAGEDY for such a beautiful, intelligent creature who never did any harm, and only lived to love her family.

There just isn't enough justice for animals in our society, which is not fair, and this NEEDS to change.

[Pajarita]

The only way to change this is to change the legal animal status because, as long as they are considered property under the law, the only 'value' the animal will have is monetary and 'killing' $500 is not a big deal under the law.

[Elaihr]

Oh my, this is awful I can't see why anyone would do this to an innocent animal... At a school nearby some kids had been stoning a hedgehog to death, this really worries me, what on earth is going on with kids these days As far as I know, the kids who stoned the hedgehogs to death didn't get into any trouble at all, which I think is terrible. Someone who tortures or kills animals for fun are in serious need of help, punishment might not always be the right way to go but something's obviously not right in the heads of these people, I think they need to be taken care of in some way to set their minds back in order.. :/