Should he have been jailed?

Dunny

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1204/rabbit-liffey-john-byrne-homeless.html

hatrickpatrick

Absolutely, 100% yes.
For two reasons, in fact. The first is the very obvious fact that this was a horrific act of cruelty to the poor rabbit who could easily have drowned or suffered serious injury.
The second is that this act amounts to a deliberate intent to torment the man whose pet the rabbit was. Can you imagine watching someone kill your pet? I can't imagine the anguish.

The person who did this is not only an animal abuser, he is a sick, cruel, twisted excuse for a human being who clearly derives pleasure from seeing people suffer. If I had my way, people like this would be very lucky to ever walk the streets freely again.

tk123

Yeah I think so - too many people in this city think they can do whatever the f@@k the want and get away with it - let it be a lesson to the rest of them!!

toadfly

Of course he should..don't see how anyone could think otherwise. What do you think OP?

Dunny

Community service in an animal shelter or something. His excuse was he was drunk and apologised to the homeless guy. But I agree it was disgusting to do this to the guy, he looks after his pets by the look of them.

tk123

Dunny wrote: »

Community service in an animal shelter or something. His excuse was he was drunk and apologised to the homeless guy. But I agree it was disgusting to do this to the guy, he looks after his pets by the look of them.

I was going to say that too but some people are just cruel and like on seeing animals in pain - there was a documentary on a couple of years ago about an abatoire (think it was one of these kill it, cook it, eat it type things that were popular a few years ago - see where you meat comes from and if you still want to eat it etc etc) anyhoos one guy in was basically a physco enjoying killing the animals, shouting at them, laughing when they were dying etc etc. Pretty sure it was in the paper/news the next day and the guy got fired.

Magenta

Dunny wrote: »

Community service in an animal shelter or something.

I would not like to see this man anywhere near an animal again, let alone ones that have ended up in a shelter and likely have already had a rough time.

FoxyVixen

It really does irritate me when people use the excuse of being drunk to get away with something like this!!! It's just a cop-out from having to accept responsibility for an atrocious act. Disgusting, highly doubt the man has learnt his lesson.

KSeraSera

He should defiantly of been made do some jail time at least, I heard the homeless man refused many nights with a roof over his head because his rabbit and dog (he had one, not sure if he still does) wouldn't be aloud in with him!

And I also agree that the last place on earth I would of made him do community service was with animals!

MsQuinn

Yes - it was an evil act by an arsehole.

I've seen the homeless guy and his rabbit and dog outside Arnotts recently. I was initially concerned that the rabbit was about to be attacked by the dog and watched for a while (I would have intervened). Eventually I realised that the dog was just playing and the rabbit didn't seem to bothered. The guy was also not concerned and I thought it was quite endearing to see. Both animals seemed very content and happy.

Good luck to him and his furry friends.

Irish Stones

Four years would have been more appropriate! :mad:

gozunda

Did the bunny survive?

Nody

FoxyVixen wrote: »

It really does irritate me when people use the excuse of being drunk to get away with something like this!!! It's just a cop-out from having to accept responsibility for an atrocious act. Disgusting, highly doubt the man has learnt his lesson.

It should simply be added to law that being under influence (drugs, medicine or alcohol etc.) automatically adds 6 months to sentance or similar setup. It's similar to the rape due to sleepwalking defence; people will claim anything to get away and the courts will believe anything to make it more lenient if possible.

Anyway an ex alcoholic once said it well (he was doing rounds talking about his life) that alcohol may be an explanation but it's not an excuse (except in court appearantly).

gozunda wrote: »

Did the bunny survive?

Yes.

rhonin

Should he have been jailed? Absolutely.

He had 138 criminal convictions. I just wonder if he didn't have a past record would he have been jailed given the crap laws around animal cruelty in this country.

**Vai**

No jail, Im not paying for him. They need to be more creative. Some kind of injection where he cant drink again without puking and...well, puking out the other end. As well as a life ban from owning or working with animals. Pure scum.

Dunny

rhonin wrote: »

Should he have been jailed? Absolutely.

He had 138 criminal convictions. I just wonder if he didn't have a past record would he have been jailed given the crap laws around animal cruelty in this country.

Christ, never knew this

pawrick

138 convictions and I wonder how much time or community service he got for them? Lesson should be learned on the first conviction and not allowed to progress through I'm assuming probation and early release. There should definitely be more community service sentences in Ireland - picking up the litter alone would keep people in Dublin busy for years!

sambuka41

rhonin wrote: »

He had 138 criminal convictions.

Most of these convictions were probably for small offences. I worked with youth at risk and it is common for them to rack up huge numbers of convictions for minor enough things before they are 18. They become targets for the Gardai, so even when they are doing things your regular teenager does they get arrested for it.

I am not defending this chap in anyway

But I find this whole situation really sad, I think he should be jailed as he needs to see consequences but he did not turn out like that on his own. He had a family once who did not care for him, or may have out-rightly abused him. Of course he needs to take responsibility for what he is doing now, but in all likelihood he was an innocent child at one point, who endured a lot of hardship.

Something could have been done for him sooner, that might have saved that rabbit and that man enduring what they did. sad situation, no winners here