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PRESS RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: Immediately (March 29, 2007)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gene Baierschmidt
(801) 261-2919 phone
HUMANE SOCIETY URGES MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR TORTURER OF KITTENS
Over a period of weeks last October, Clint Wilkes collected free kittens through newspaper classified ads and then gruesomely tortured them, apparently in order to maintain contact with a former girlfriend by asking her to help with the injured animals.
Wilkes was originally charged with two counts of cruelty to animals, a Class A misdemeanor, and a single Class B misdemeanor charge of animal abandonment. In exchange for Wilkes’s pleading guilty to the abandonment charge, the two cruelty charges were dropped. At 10:00 AM on Monday, May 21st, Wilkes will be sentenced by Judge Peggy Acomb in Room S4200 of the Salt Lake County Justice of the Peace Court located at 2001 S. State Street, and officials of the Humane Society of Utah are asking members of the public to contact Judge Acomb in writing, respectfully urging her to impose the maximum possible penalty - six months in jail and a $1,000 fine - on him.
"This is another classic example of why Utah needs to get an animal-cruelty law with some teeth in it," says HSU Executive Director Gene Baierschmidt. "A large body of evidence shows a strong link between cruelty to animals and domestic violence involving women, children, and elderly people. As long as brutal individuals with out-of-control impulses think that they can get away with torturing any living being incapable of defending itself against them, the violence will continue."
While the fact that Wilkes has been ordered to undergo psychological counseling and is working to overcome his addiction to methamphetamine drugs is a positive thing, the Humane Society nevertheless feels that the egregious nature of the abuse suffered by the kittens, several of whom had to be euthanized because of the severity of the damage inflicted on them, should be viewed as a serious moral and legal offense.
"Enough is enough," says Mr. Baierschmidt. "Forty-one other states have felony laws on the books. When incidents like the burning and blinding of Henry the dog and the mangling of these kittens get only a slap on the wrist, Utah inevitably projects a very negative image."
For more information, call 261-2919.
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