There's a thread about this in Cat General as well...

What bothers me about the article itself is the "mitigating factors" ... so what if he is a father of a five-month-old and attends church? Many serial killers and rapists have much more impressive accolades under their belts.

In addition to this, there have been cases involving human murder where the perpetrator has used the same kind of excuses to try and secure a verdict of "not guilty." And, the victim's family aren't even allowed to tell the court what a wonderful person s/he was!

So who is going to speak for this kitten?