http://www.connpost.com/opinion/ci_3155590
Clear message sent on animal abuse
This week's sentencing of Brannon Chandler for the killing of five puppies in Derby hopefully sends out a clear message across the state: Connecticut takes animal cruelty seriously and if you abuse an animal, you will be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
Chandler, 20, was given a five-year prison sentence suspended after two years and followed by three years probation following his pleading guilty to six counts of animal abuse in August.
On Jan. 19, Chandler slit the throats of his roommates' six puppies. Only one of them, who was later named Amazing Grace, survived the attack and is now in the care of Seymour's dog warden.
While Chandler's attack garnered headlines across the state for its sheer brutality and senselessness, animal cruelty is all too common a crime. Thousands of times a day across the country animals are beaten, mistreated and even killed by their owners.
Animal abuse is a gutless crime perpetrated on an essentially defenseless creature. In years past, animal abuse probably would have resulted in little more than a simple fine, but as the sentencing of Chandler has demonstrated, those days are over.
If you hurt or kill an animal, you do so with the understanding that you will face the possibility of years in prison.
Chandler isn't just going to be fined for killing those five puppies, nor is he facing a simple slap on the wrist. He's going to jail for at least two years.
Those are two whole years that Chandler will have plenty of time to think about the abuse he put each of those five puppies through.
Society has no room for animal abusers. Hopefully, that message is becoming loud and clear.
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