Urge Officials to Investigate Child, Animal Abuse Case
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BACKGROUND
In August, an extremely disturbing video depicting a very young girl being forced by her parents to repeatedly shoot an opossum who wandered onto their porch was posted to Facebook. Visibly shaken and exclaiming in distress, “I don’t want to shoot him!” the girl is directed, in front of two even younger children, to fire pellets again and again into the helpless animal. The traumatized girl pleads, “I don’t like doing this,” but to no avail, and the opossum, having been struck only about the body, suffers terribly during the ordeal. The video was posted with the caption “Well our dogs kept us up all night long cause that possum was eating their food. So I’m glad it’s dead. [The girl] was a little sad cause her dad made her shoot it. 😦 she didn’t like it…[sic]”. The family reportedly lives in Bee County, Texas.
PETA provided officials with everything they need to investigate (including names and an address) and has for months urged them to do just that, but our public records request reveals that no action was taken! Your voice is now needed! Please politely urge officials to take this matter seriously for the sake of the children and the animal who suffered that day.
WHOM TO CONTACT
The Honorable Martha Warner
Bee County District Attorney’s Office
martha.warner@co.bee.tx.us
Sheriff Carlos Carrizales Jr.
Bee County Sheriff’s Office
carlos.carrizales@co.bee.tx.us
Major Larry Young
Texas Parks and Wildlife Division Law Enforcement
Region 10
larry.young@tpwd.state.tx.us
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Honorable Warner, Sheriff Carrizales, Jr., and Major Young:
It has come to my attention that a gross case of animal cruelty has occurred in Bee County, Texas, in which a parent allegedly forced a child to brutally shoot an opossum with other children nearby. I therefore respectfully request a case be immediately initiated with the adequate information as gathered by PETA to investigate the deliberate abuse of the child and animal and that the most severe subsequent penalty be pursued as well.
Although not required, I do feel it important to validate my concerns: when I try to imagine what possible motive abusers entertain for subjecting their victims to such malicious, heinous acts of emotional brutality as well as physical cruelty, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To engage in such malevolent behaviour absolutely suggests sociopathic and sadistic tendencies and demonstrates an incontrovertible lack of morality regarding other living beings and a gross disrespect for the law. In fact, a person who shows such a remarkable lack of compassion towards animals has, disturbingly enough, the ability to show such indifference towards humans. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if we excuse or ignore the opossum’s violent killing and the indirect killer, the parent, we would be serving an injustice to both animals and society’s children.
When animals are subjected to such brutality with no human accountability, our society inaccurately concludes that animals are not worthy of empathy, compassion, or rights. We become desensitized to the issue of animal abuse, and our children learn troubling lessons that are contrary to respect of and towards animals, which often evolves into a lack of empathy for humans. We must do everything in our power to allocate necessary resources to investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of animal cruelty cases. I understand that yours can be a challenging position, limited by vague and inadequate laws as well as insufficient funds; however, we are intelligent people with loud voices and tireless determination, and I believe we can make a difference or initiate change to better protect our animal friends. Please proceed with the most severe penalties and examine where existing legal mandates may be rewritten to address the current inadequacy of such.
I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention to this important, urgent issue.
NAME
ADDRESS
See More:
an evil adult
run rampant and wild
abusing an animal
tormenting a child
this sociopath
belongs in a cell
because such
wickedness can
never get well
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Our Compass 
an evil adult
run rampant and wild
abusing an animal
tormenting a child
this sociopath
belongs in a cell
because such
wickedness can
never get well
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Beautifully written Karen and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been waiting my whole life for people to GET thiis critically important lesson!!
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email sent at 2009 hours 16Jan2012
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Done, sharing ~ My ignorant Grandfather, used to try and make my mother shoot their farm animals for dinner, she refused, suffered abuse for refusing, her siblings did not refuse 😦
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How sad for your mother to have suffered that emotional torment. This is one of the worst kinds of child abuse. I’m impressed that she was strong enough to refuse. If i was forced to make such an egregious choice, I may have shot the abuser instead. Thanks for sharing!
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That is what she ended up doing when she was 15, took a gun to him, to tell him not to touch her ever again. These are the types of things that this generation learned from when they were children, children were seen and not heard, and were to keep quiet of all the terrible things that were happening to them and the animals. Very happy we are at this point at least, in evolution, this next generation is very promising for independent, critical thinking and empathy for their fellow humans and animals 🙂
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when my mom was a child (she is now 70) her & her siblings were forced 2 take their newborn kittens & throw them against a rock 2 kill them if they didn’t they got a beating!! she did not want 2 do it but she didn’t want hit even more so she did it!! it bothers her 2 this day that she didn’t take the beating but she feels that as a child U R 2 listen 2 everything ur parents tell u 2 do!! i would’ve taken the beating !!!
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NO child should EVER be forced 2 take a life of ANY KIND coz that leads 2 them being violent with ppl !!
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I so agree with you Cindy and don’t think I could ever have done harm to animals at any age, for any reason. That was repugnant and reprehensible abuse on every level.
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A friend just sent me this link. I know the girl in the video being forced by her father to do this. I beg everyone to please be relentless about this case and make sure justice is served here. My heart breaks for the children and the poor possum and the countless other creatures I saw this man torture for pleasure. This video is just the tip of the abuse.
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These people are sadistic and clearly unfit to care for children.What they did to this innocent animal and their own child was beneath contempt.What the law officers have done so far i e nothing is despicable,they are colluding with animal and child abuse.Letters sent and cause shared.
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Disgusting, the girls are horrified and the dickhead is getting them to use a BB gun. BB gun FFS ?!
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This is so sad, this man needs to be sent away for as many years as possible
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