Learn a lesson from cat's death

To the editor:

The purr-fect murder has been committed. The deceased is a dead cat, a former living, breathing, sentient innocent. The suspect has been convicted. He pleaded guilty to actions that drained the cat of all nine lives. He pleaded guilty to squeezing, throwing and stomping the cat. Nice, huh?

This crime is a felony case of animal cruelty. For committing felony animal cruelty a guilty individual could spend up to four years in prison. But we, the people of Cape County, in our infinite wisdom and through our county prosecutor, have simply asked for supervised probation. We're not asking for any jail time, none at all. We'll just have the supervised probation, please. On behalf of the cat allow me to say: Meow, meow, meow. You may read that as: How very disappointing; how very disturbing.

When needless violence occurs, we humans want some good to come of it. We don't like to see a cat or any living creature die in vain. We obviously don't all feel quite that way, but most of us do. Since we can't do anything about the cat's death, let's hope at least once person in this community will learn something valuable from this experience. I'd like to report I have learned something: There is no accountability for committing felony animal cruelty in Cape Girardeau County.

JANE M. PAINTON, Jackson