Letter to the editor: Sentence in deer torture outrageous

Outrageous! The entire point of changing animal abuse laws is so what took place in that abhorrent deer torture video wouldn’t end exactly the way it did. The older of the two teens who tortured a deer in Brookville may as well have been given a ribbon and prize. Cruelty to animals is now a felony, yet the 18-year-old received an anemic “sentence” of two years’ probation, community service, his hunting license pulled for 15 years and a paltry fine.

This speaks volumes regarding apathy toward animal welfare and what’s even acceptable behavior in a civilized, 21st-century society. He might have learned something, he may have gotten counseling and he may have turned his life around, but instead, his actions were minimized using a plea deal with no jail time and the worst of the charges dropped.

This meager “sentence” sends the message that the state doesn’t actually care and that animal abuse, even at its utmost worst, will be tolerated. If the sheer diabolical brutality in that graphic, unwatchable video where the deer is crying and the teens are laughing isn’t worthy of a felony charge sticking, what more would an animal have to endure?

One massive abysmal failure.

Michele Alary

New Kensington