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Posted on Fri, Sep. 25, 2009<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 17pt">
Don't reserve outrage for animal killings
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By JAMES BURNETT
[email protected]
I knew it would happen.
When police in North Miami-Dade announced Wednesday their second arrest in two recent horse butcherings, the outrage over the gruesome killings came to a boil.
Readers of news stories on the arrests of Santiago Cabrera, 19, and Miguel Cordero, 18, left comments on MiamiHerald.com ranging from ``There has to be a special place -- somewhere -- for people like this,'' to ``another teen murderer!''
Cabrera and Cordero have been charged with armed burglary, animal cruelty, killing a registered breed horse, and breaking a fence in the gruesome deaths of two horses at local ranches. Investigators say they carved up one horse while she was still alive, and sawed off her legs while her foal watched from a few feet away.
At least 15 more horses have been found slaughtered in South Florida this year, but no solid connection has been made between them and Cabrera and Cordero.
I get the outrage. I rode horses as a child. I own a dog and a cat. I get that four-legged animals, no matter how intelligent, depend on humans for proper care, and don't expect people to harm them.
<span style="color: #FF0000">
WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?
What I don't get is why we can't express as much outrage about the slaughter of humans. When 15-year-old Jason Maharaj was shot and killed and a friend wounded in North Miami this month, a reader commented on MiamiHerald.com, grammar problems intact, that it was ``No big lost, they should of been home studying.''
So don't scoff and bluster about people not being as innocent as four-legged animals. Whatever your level of cynicism, you can't seriously believe that humans expect to be murdered any more than horses do.</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">So far, $20,000 in reward money has been raised by Crime Stoppers and the Humane Society for information leading to arrests and convictions of the horse killers</span>.
The situation is reminiscent of the 1996 murders of University of Miami students Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, both 22, in Barnes' apartment. Unfortunately for Barnes and Lumpkins, a dog named Lassie was stolen and brutally killed around the same time.
REWARD IMBALANCE
Miami Police Department investigators tell me that <span style="font-weight: bold">it was a struggle to scrape together $11,000 in reward money for information on Barnes and Lumpkins' deaths. Lassie? The Herald reported then that her reward fund topped $15,000. Police say it ultimately reached $80,000, and that they had to beg the public to stop sending money because they couldn't keep up with the influx of donations.</span>
It's not about rewards, though. It's about not showing proper respect for the lives of people, about taking people's lives for granted.
The most obvious problem with taking a dismissive attitude toward human murder victims and reserving the harshest criticism for animal killers is that it calls for a lower value to be placed on human life.
And we all know the less we value something, the less we try to protect it.
Be angry about animal killers. Feel the rage. Put it to good use. Volunteer at the Humane Society. Adopt a stray dog, or cat. Feed a horse.
But if you really want to show you have a heart, next time a human is killed in cold blood where you live, feel the rage. Put it to good use. Rally your neighbors. Volunteer for Crime Stoppers. And in case he reads the comments on MiamiHerald.com, tell the killer what he deserves and what you'd do if you could get your hands on him.
Don't reserve outrage for animal killings
</span></span>
By JAMES BURNETT
[email protected]
I knew it would happen.
When police in North Miami-Dade announced Wednesday their second arrest in two recent horse butcherings, the outrage over the gruesome killings came to a boil.
Readers of news stories on the arrests of Santiago Cabrera, 19, and Miguel Cordero, 18, left comments on MiamiHerald.com ranging from ``There has to be a special place -- somewhere -- for people like this,'' to ``another teen murderer!''
Cabrera and Cordero have been charged with armed burglary, animal cruelty, killing a registered breed horse, and breaking a fence in the gruesome deaths of two horses at local ranches. Investigators say they carved up one horse while she was still alive, and sawed off her legs while her foal watched from a few feet away.
At least 15 more horses have been found slaughtered in South Florida this year, but no solid connection has been made between them and Cabrera and Cordero.
I get the outrage. I rode horses as a child. I own a dog and a cat. I get that four-legged animals, no matter how intelligent, depend on humans for proper care, and don't expect people to harm them.
<span style="color: #FF0000">
WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?
What I don't get is why we can't express as much outrage about the slaughter of humans. When 15-year-old Jason Maharaj was shot and killed and a friend wounded in North Miami this month, a reader commented on MiamiHerald.com, grammar problems intact, that it was ``No big lost, they should of been home studying.''
So don't scoff and bluster about people not being as innocent as four-legged animals. Whatever your level of cynicism, you can't seriously believe that humans expect to be murdered any more than horses do.</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">So far, $20,000 in reward money has been raised by Crime Stoppers and the Humane Society for information leading to arrests and convictions of the horse killers</span>.
The situation is reminiscent of the 1996 murders of University of Miami students Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, both 22, in Barnes' apartment. Unfortunately for Barnes and Lumpkins, a dog named Lassie was stolen and brutally killed around the same time.
REWARD IMBALANCE
Miami Police Department investigators tell me that <span style="font-weight: bold">it was a struggle to scrape together $11,000 in reward money for information on Barnes and Lumpkins' deaths. Lassie? The Herald reported then that her reward fund topped $15,000. Police say it ultimately reached $80,000, and that they had to beg the public to stop sending money because they couldn't keep up with the influx of donations.</span>
It's not about rewards, though. It's about not showing proper respect for the lives of people, about taking people's lives for granted.
The most obvious problem with taking a dismissive attitude toward human murder victims and reserving the harshest criticism for animal killers is that it calls for a lower value to be placed on human life.
And we all know the less we value something, the less we try to protect it.
Be angry about animal killers. Feel the rage. Put it to good use. Volunteer at the Humane Society. Adopt a stray dog, or cat. Feed a horse.
But if you really want to show you have a heart, next time a human is killed in cold blood where you live, feel the rage. Put it to good use. Rally your neighbors. Volunteer for Crime Stoppers. And in case he reads the comments on MiamiHerald.com, tell the killer what he deserves and what you'd do if you could get your hands on him.