Can depression explain away animal cruelty?

[Hospatogi]

Hi all,

I just read this and it made me sad, horrified, outraged, and just plain shocked . Her defense is that she was depressed. I understand that there are many people in this country suffering with mental health issues. I get that we need a better system to help people. But I am having a hard time believing that anyone could do this and not have some kind of twisted psyche .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/woman-microwaves-cat-minutes-dies-horrid-death-article-1.1698559

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

That's the most disgusting thing I've ever read. I could vomit and cry right now...

 

[VapidLapid]

I won't even look at the linked page.'
In answer to your question, "Can depression explain away animal cruelty?"
No.

 

[ForteKitty]

Hell no. She's a psychopath. I'd have no problems if someone microwaved her until her organs burst.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Hell no. She's a psychopath. I'd have no problems if someone microwaved her until her organs burst.

+1

 

[TooPatient]

Hell no. She's a psychopath. I'd have no problems if someone microwaved her until her organs burst.

This.

 

[Gypsy]

OMG. Just the link name made me heave.

I cannot click on that. I won't be able to read that.

But I suffered from depression for years. And at times it was VERY severe. In my own experience depression enhances what is already there in a negative way. Plus it adds hopelessness and lethargy. It doesn't 'create' new personality flaws.

To me... this person was clearly disturbed as it was. And maybe the depression made things worse and enhanced the cruelty in her already present and combined it with poor decision making but... it didn't CAUSE the animal cruelty. That was in her heart already.

 

[Hospatogi]

OMG. Just the link name made me heave.

I cannot click on that. I won't be able to read that.

But I suffered from depression for years. And at times it was VERY severe. In my own experience depression enhances what is already there in a negative way. Plus it adds hopelessness and lethargy. It doesn't 'create' new personality flaws.

To me... this person was clearly disturbed as it was. And maybe the depression made things worse and enhanced the cruelty in her already present and combined it with poor decision making but... it didn't CAUSE the animal cruelty. That was in her heart already.

Hi Gypsy,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sure it hasn't been an easy journey for you. I've had people in my life who have also been very depressed but with therapy, medication and plenty of love and support they are doing much better now. It really upsets me that this person is using depression as a defense for her actions . I really wish we had stiffer penalties for animal cruelty here. I bet she will probably just get a fine and probation whereas if this was a human baby she would be in jail for a very long time.

 

[momhappy]

I won't click on it either.
I think that you've brought up two different things entirely. Can depression offer an explanation for the behavior? Yes. Can it explain it away and/or justify the behavior? No. Mental illness can explain why some behaviors occur, but that still doesn't make those behaviors somehow okay.

 

[OreoRosies86]

Explain it away? Of course not. What she did is deplorable.

Can depression or mental illness factor into abuse? Of course. For many reasons.

 

[JewelFreak]

No. I'm not going to read that article -- wish I hadn't read the link. Depression does NOT cause cruelty. More likely the opposite -- severe depression runs in my family & a story like that only deepens the sadness; before medication, that would have sent me to bed in tears.

As so often, this is a person who refuses to take responsibility for her own actions. Blame depression. Blame The System. Blame Twinkies. But don't blame me -- the devil made me do it! She's a sadist, period. I hope she pays for it on a higher level someday.

--- Laurie

 

[NOYFB]

Hell no. She's a psychopath. I'd have no problems if someone microwaved her until her organs burst.

This.

 

[CJ2008]

Wow I really wish I had not read that link.

No.

Like everyone else has said, that has to be "in you" already for something like depression to bring it out.

Or you have to be mentally ill or a psychopath.

I often wonder what would happen if the laws were changed to not treat animals as property. The sentences these people receive are probably not enough.

 

[ChristineRose]

If it's depressive psychosis, possibly. You can't tell anything meaningful from this article.

 

[Circe]

Wow, I wish I had resisted the temptation to read that. Thomas Harris- could be off about the name, I mean the guy who wrote "The Silence of the Lambs" - wrote a similar s end to give depth to a psychopathic character in one of his books. I thought HE as a sick **** just cor conceiving of such a thing, much less actually doing it. I read it as a teen and had nightmares for weeks. This will probably have much the same effect.

And, no, to answer the original question, this doesn't fit with a depressive diagnosis at ALL.

Put me in the camp voting for much harsher penalties for animal cruelty.

 

[ame]

Hi all,

I just read this and it made me sad, horrified, outraged, and just plain shocked . Her defense is that she was depressed. I understand that there are many people in this country suffering with mental health issues. I get that we need a better system to help people. But I am having a hard time believing that anyone could do this and not have some kind of twisted psyche .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/woman-microwaves-cat-minutes-dies-horrid-death-article-1.1698559

No, it cannot explain it away, frankly, nothing can.

 

[lulu]

Depression does not explain this. I think she's a psychopath.

 

[Polished]

A complete lack of empathy is a terrifying thing, definitely not opening this link.

 

[hlmr]

Depressed people don't have the energy to be this EVIL!!!

 

[arkieb1]

Depression does not explain this. I think she's a psychopath.

+ 1 either a psychopath or a halfwit or both. A large majority of the population suffers depression, that doesn't mean they will torture animals, children or another human being because of it.

 

[Nyc2chigal]

Absolutely not!!!!!!
If you can't take it, give that poor animal a chance at life with someone else who will not put it in danger.
Period.


Makes me want to hug my little Zoe right now...

 

[TC1987]

Depression doesn't explain it. It's cruelty, simple as that. She killed the cat because it attacked her goldfish. Whose fault was that? Hers.

omg! Don't Google it, because there are actual images of the cat. None in the link, above. I'd be perfectly okay with exterminating people like her on the spot. No trial, no jury. Drag her out, shoot her, and feed her body to zoo animals.

 

[Circe]

I ... jesus, TC, thanks for saying, because I was starting to get curious as to whether any further information on this person had beenb released, and I have no doubt the imagery would stay in my head.

Animal cruelty of this caliber is usual more a sign of sociopathy than depression. I don't think I want to delve into what's apparently out there, but I do wonder if this is the first thing of this nature she's done, because it tends to be a thing that escalates over time.

FWIW - and I'm guessing not much necessarily - but an engineer friend attempted to provide solace with the info that in circumstances like these, the brain is the first organ to fail. So while the corporeal body may have suffered, it would have been effectively brain dead and not conscious of it almost immediately, apparently. I hope that's true. And I'm *not* googling to learn more, because I am a coward.

 

[SMC]

I don't know. I think she needs help AND she needs to be prosecuted. Depression should not exempt her from punishment. I wish there was a law that prevents animal abusers from ever owning pets ever again.

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

Depression doesn't explain it. It's cruelty, simple as that. She killed the cat because it attacked her goldfish. Whose fault was that? Hers.

omg! Don't Google it, because there are actual images of the cat. None in the link, above. I'd be perfectly okay with exterminating people like her on the spot. No trial, no jury. Drag her out, shoot her, and feed her body to zoo animals.

Why even let the zoo animals suffer by eating her? They are already suffering as is being cooped up in cages.

I say she is tortured every day until she is almost at the brink of death, for about 10 years (how long an average animal lives). Then gutted, made to eat her own intestines, then buried alive. Gruesome? I think not. I DO NOT tolerate the abuse of animals in any form. Eating or beating.

This woman is clearly a deranged psychopath that needs to be punished to the full extent of the law. No, further than that since I feel that animal cruelty laws needs to be harsher and more enforced. She should feel how it feels to be microwaved until she explodes.

Depression is an excuse. She MUST be punished.

 

[TooPatient]

Oh my!

I shouldn't have read that! Any form of abusing an animal should be severely punished.

I don't care what this "person" claims they suffer from. She is a sick sick heartless creep who should NEVER be allowed near animals or kids or anyone again. She deserves to go through just as much agony and pain as that defenseless kitten went through.

 

[Sky56]

It's psychopathy. Karma is a bitch. Other people will punish her the rest of her life.

 

[OreoRosies86]

I ... jesus, TC, thanks for saying, because I was starting to get curious as to whether any further information on this person had beenb released, and I have no doubt the imagery would stay in my head.

Animal cruelty of this caliber is usual more a sign of sociopathy than depression. I don't think I want to delve into what's apparently out there, but I do wonder if this is the first thing of this nature she's done, because it tends to be a thing that escalates over time.

FWIW - and I'm guessing not much necessarily - but an engineer friend attempted to provide solace with the info that in circumstances like these, the brain is the first organ to fail. So while the corporeal body may have suffered, it would have been effectively brain dead and not conscious of it almost immediately, apparently. I hope that's true. And I'm *not* googling to learn more, because I am a coward.

I was just coming on here to post this. You are correct. I forwarded this article to a friend of mine who is a vet. She said the trauma from the radiation would have been so sudden and extreme, even though the cat remained alive it was likely already gone in the sense that it thankfully had no idea what had happened to it. Brain dead but still displaying mechanical reflexes during the process of death.

It is somewhat of a comfort to know that this poor animal's experience was brief pain into unconsciousness, then death.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

There is no excuse for cruelty to animals. The quasi-human scum that torture animals are cowards: they're afraid to get into a boxing ring and go one on one with someone who might hurt them.

 

[TC1987]

There is no excuse for cruelty to animals. The quasi-human scum that torture animals are cowards: they're afraid to get into a boxing ring and go one on one with someone who might hurt them.

True. They always have to pick on someone weaker. I can't think of any animal abuser, or people-abuser for that matter, who wasn't a loser.