I didn't watch the video, but if someone will post a video of Ms Aguilar getting beaten I'll watch.

Stupid BITCH needs a whippin all her own..

Some people just need killing.

Nothing else can be said.

She should be banned from professional football for life, Shawn.

More seriously, this lady should be in prison. There's no excuse for abusing an animal. I don't subscribe to the notion that she needs professional counseling. If I understand this story right, this was barbaric and repeated abuse. The story doesn't say whether she has kids, but chances are that if she did, they would be abused as well.

There is such a thing as deterrence. And it starts with enforcing the maximum penalties the law can provide.

After an investigation, Special Agent Debbie Ryan returned on Friday and arrested Aguilar for aggravated animal cruelty and criminal possession of a weapon.

I have no sympathy for this woman. None. However, charging her with criminal possession of a weapon is wrong. It is an abuse of the law. The weapon in question? A shovel. Owning a shovel is not a criminal act, and perverting the law, even in the case of someone as horrible as this woman is wrong. If she can be charged in this manner, than so can anyone else. If someone smacks someone with a broom, or throws a bottle of water at someone, charge them with the appropriate crime, but don't twist the law into something it doesn't really mean.

People who'd treat an animal like that probably wouldn't have much of a problem treating other people the same way.

I'd guess she was abusing the dog because she didn't have children to abuse. They court should sentence her to being abused with a snow shovel.

As far as a test for pet ownership?

How about, you have to fill out a federal form stating if you have any violent felonies especially abuse of pets or children, have a centralized data base that the pet dealer has to call to verify your eligibility to own a pet. Then, you have to have a 3-7 day cooling off period to decide if your really want that pet after all. You could also heavily tax the purchase of pets.

I agree with Cro and GarandFan: some people just need killing because they'd do the same thing to a person in a heartbeat.

I can understand (sort of) people not treating their pets like their children. I can almost understand people getting a dog or cat and keeping it outside all the time. But beating that poor puppy... Sick, man. Sick.

I like animals, whether fried, roasted or simmered in a nice soup -- but I don't tenderize them while they're still alive. That's just wrong.

(Bring on the minus votes, I know I deserve 'em.)

I, like you Shawn, am a huge animal lover. Domestic animals for sure. In particular, dogs. They are the most loving and pleasing animals. They sense your moods and act accordingly. I could not bring myself to watch the video. I think people are becoming crueler by the minute. I am not one prone to impulsive violent outbursts, but I would fear for this woman if she did that in front of me. ww

"A heartless Queens woman was arrested for crippling her 11-month-old English bulldog after witnesses caught her on video beating the pooch with a shovel, officials said."

So she was arrested.
Good.
Is the penalty upon conviction going to be justice?
I don't know, maybe the penalty should be harsher.

"I've always thought people who desire to own a pet should be subject to some sort of "pet-ownership" license or legally binding verification."
~Shawn Mallow

This is where I have a problem.
Shawn Mallow, you are advocating the expansion of state powers.
I'm against that.

Right now, civic governments license dogs.
If they license dog owners, they could eliminate dog ownership through a moratorium on issuing licenses for ownership.

In places like Canada and England the government wants to curtail dog ownership.
By a "license the owner" instead of the dog program they plan to achieve that curtailment.
Unlike guns, dog ownership is not a constitutional right.

Shawn Mallow, you say it is a privilege?
A privilege permitted by the state is what you mean.

Think of the sweeping rules the government could impose to qualify an owner for a dog owning permit.

Think of the new unnecessary industry that would be created to qualify dog owners on a regular basis and the fees that would be involved.

This is a dangerous-to-liberty, half-baked idea you have.

It would be better to raise the penalties for mistreatment of animals.

Crap like this used to be quite common a couple of centuries ago. Animal cruelty was considered good, wholesome family entertainment. Look up the history of "bear baiting," for example. Heck, look at bullfighting today.

In the middle ages, European villagers used to round up stray cats, put them into a sack, and then set the sack on fire, just for fun. Karma in action: those cats kept down the rat population; the villages that exterminated their cats were hit hardest by rat-borne plagues.

Speller you just gave me a headache.
I do hope the Judge will exercise some fairness here. I have just the shovel to beat her with and can swear at her in three languages.

Speller,

(I understood you were addressing me after the first use of my name, let alone the third.)

O.K., I said:

Now, I'm not naive enough to think that something like this is really going to happen. I mean, we can't even control our own boarders, and we're going to exert some sort of oversight concerning animals and people?

I guess the laws on our books and the vigilance of others will have to do for now

Almost as if to answer your concerns, that's sort of why I followed up with the above statement.

And just to clarify:

Shawn Mallow, you say it is a privilege?
A privilege permitted by the state is what you mean.

Wrong. I said it should be a privilege.

You say I advocate the expansion of state powers, then go on to site what Canada and England want to do. Those are countries.

This is a dangerous-to-liberty, half-baked idea you have.

A tad dramatic, no, Speller?

Sort of like saying I'd like to shove a few pounds of sausage up her ass and sic a pack of wolves on her.

Oh, wait..

Got any asprin, RFA?

She should hitch up with Michael Vick and then the two of them can go play with that cube from Hellraiser until that pin-cushion guy shows up.

Appropriate punishment for her? Beat her with a shovel.

Kudos to the neighbors who stood up for the poor dog and did what was right.

Another huge dog-lover here, who thinks that they should send this bitch to some Islamic country and tell them she was badmouthing Mohammed.

One must remember that people that abuse animals also tend to abuse people, too. Most serial killers start out by abusing and killing animals.

I've never understood people abusing animals. That pisses me off to no end and I would have no problem removing such a lowlife from the human gene pool by way of a 280 grain round moving at over 2000 feet per second.

It's spelled "borders," pinhead.

It's spelled "borders," pinhead. -Chd

Gee. Thanks a bunch! All fixed!

A gentle reminder would have sufficed, Chd.

I am, however, forever in your debt.

You have given me hope!

For I may, someday, be as close to perfection as you!

Though I feel I am not worthy.

-Shawn

(Just wondering, Chd. Have anything to say about the actual, you know, content?)

Hey! I just realized something! If you were here right now you could beat me with a shovel and throw me to the ground!

Jackass.

If you watch the NBC video it gets even worse, the husband claims the dog was in fine shape when the ASPCA picked him but he had been a sickly dog - a sickly dog doesn't have a fractured hip, broken leg and teeth, etc.

But then the son says "We don't want her to go to jail, it just a dog". Just a dog, this is the attitude passed on in this family. And where were these Vets in reporting cruelty?? 12 visits in 7 mos with hip fractures, etc??? What did he spend $7,000 on if none of this was fixed??? Liars and sick people passing it on to the new generation.

Animal abuse and child abuse. Call me twisted but I think they should bring back stocks and public flogging.

Shawn, I have 2 dogs, from the same litter now 16 years old and doing very well, that I love very much.
If anyone tried to hurt them I would react with violence.

I don't need to be licensened to own them or care for them.

You can quibble about "is a privilege" or "should be a privilege" it makes no difference to the thrust of your statist suggestion.

Governments don't want people to own dogs.
There are a number of reason for this.
The fact that the military and police use them should indicate why they don't want their subjects to have matching capabilities.

Licensing dog owners is a step toward taking that capability away.

Licensing dog owners would be a collective act spurred by rare individual cases like the one you cite above.

Basing legislative policy on outliers such as that makes for bad law.

You should know better.