Not cruel to blow up dogs; can that be extended to humans?
Aug 6, 2013, 10:26 AM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 12:55 pm
Sometimes criminals try to claim different forms of death penalties are cruel and unusual, but the law doesn't see blowing up a dog as cruel. Maybe it wouldn't be for a human then too. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
Taken from Tuesday’s David Boze Show
A man in Stevenson, Washington stands accused of blowing up his dog. I was having a fairly decent morning until that story.
In court papers, investigators said 45-year-old Christopher Wayne Dillingham, attached a fireworks bomb to the dog’s collar early Sunday and set it off with a blast that alarmed neighbors, according to the Associated Press. Dillingham said he killed the dog because an ex-girlfriend had “put the devil in it.” He also said he was preparing for the rapture.
Dillingham has been charged for possession of a bomb or explosive device with intent to use for an unlawful purpose and reckless endangerment. He could face a sentence up to 20 years in prison. But he’s reportedly not facing any charges for animal cruelty.
According to Washington State law (RCW 16.52.205):
(1) A person is guilty of animal cruelty in the first degree when, except as authorized in law, he or she intentionally (a) inflicts substantial pain on, (b) causes physical injury to, or (c) kills an animal by a means causing undue suffering, or forces a minor to inflict unnecessary pain, injury, or death on an animal.
(2) A person is guilty of animal cruelty in the first degree when, except as authorized by law, he or she, with criminal negligence, starves, dehydrates, or suffocates an animal and as a result causes: (a) Substantial and unjustifiable physical pain that extends for a period sufficient to cause considerable suffering; or (b) death.
I understand the no cruelty charge even though it’s bizarre. It’s because the definition of cruelty is the suffering. When your head is blown off instantly, it’s about as swift as it gets death-wise.
Many people kill animals. You kill animals because you’re eating them. If the law is too broad, you end up including slaughterhouses and other things in the cruelty law. So you have to have that suffering component in there, that way you have standards.
Something like this, where it’s barbaric and people react with horror appropriately, it still might not fall under the cruelty law.
But now that we know it’s not cruel to blow up a dog, why would it be cruel to blow up a human?
It couldn’t be called a cruel and unusual punishment.
We have murderers that so often claim that it’s cruel and unusual punishment if they get injected with something or they get the electric chair.
Could this be a new solution? Just strap these mass murderers with a nice stick of dynamite, light the fuse, and run.
You’re killing two birds with one stone. You get a good fireworks display, plus get an end to these serial killers and others who usually spend 25 years on death row claiming any kind of execution is cruel and unusual.
We could all agree that when you’re blown up, it all ends pretty quickly.
Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The David Boze Show
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
JS
