Guide Dog for the Blind

[Guest]

Does anyone know what the penalty would be for killing a guide dog for the blind? It's for a story! Don't worry.

 

[R Nitelight]

Well.....
I can't imagine it would be good......

 

[Weird Harold]

Unfortunately, unless it happened in a very enlightened jurisdiction, It would probably be no more than the penalty for shooting any other (non-stray) dog.

In otherwords, about the same as the penalty is going to be for the guy caught with the sheep in the university barn. (see news headlines on the story index page.) Since that jurisdiction has no law against sex with animals, they charged him with animal abuse. The article should say what the maximum penalty is. I didn't read the whole thing, just the headline.

 

[Guest]

Felony here

If someone intentionally kills a dog or cat it is a felony here. I would think there would have to be a harsher penalty for a service dog. I've searched the web but couldn't find anything.

 

[Angel]

Re: Felony here

If someone intentionally kills a dog or cat it is a felony here. I would think there would have to be a harsher penalty for a service dog. I've searched the web but couldn't find anything.

You know, maybe I am just weird, but that really irks me. Why should killing a service dog be a higher penalty than a pet? Is the pet less important because it wasn't trained to serve a human?

 

[Guest]

Re: Felony here

You know, maybe I am just weird, but that really irks me. Why should killing a service dog be a higher penalty than a pet? Is the pet less important because it wasn't trained to serve a human?

Well I'm just going by the fact that if you kill a police dog it is equivalent to killing a police officer. I was thinking that yes he is more valuable because he is really an essential part to someone's mobility, highly and expensively trained. There is a lot more invested.

If that irks you how about the law that if someone burns down a barn and kills riding horses the animals are considered livestock and their deaths are not a felony.

I'm just trying to get my story believable by having someone do the appropriate time for the crime. I'm sorry I irked you.

So is there a minimum sentence for a felony conviction?

 

[Angel]

Re: Re: Felony here

Well I'm just going by the fact that if you kill a police dog it is equivalent to killing a police officer. I was thinking that yes he is more valuable because he is really an essential part to someone's mobility, highly and expensively trained. There is a lot more invested.

If that irks you how about the law that if someone burns down a barn and kills riding horses the animals are considered livestock and their deaths are not a felony.

I'm just trying to get my story believable by having someone do the appropriate time for the crime. I'm sorry I irked you.

So is there a minimum sentence for a felony conviction?

No no, you didn't irk me. The LAW irks me. And yes the livestock thing irks me too. I don't know yet if the Police dog thing irks me yet, I'll have to think about it. I just felt like they were putting a value on the life of an animal just because it was trained to be essentially a servant instead of a pet.

Personally if someone intentionally kills any animal at all, it should be equally punishable with the stiffest penalty possible. Of course there are some exceptions, for example if you are being attacked for no reason by a dog, you would be defending yourself. (Unless of course you were breaking into a house and it was protecting it's home and the people in it) If I say, just decided your dog was ugly and shot it to death, I would hope that I went to jail for a very very very long time.

 

[Guest]

Re: Felony here

No no, you didn't irk me. The LAW irks me.

What I have found is that animal cruelty laws are very local in their jurisdiction. The law that makes it a felony to kill a dog or a cat was enacted in my county recently after some unbelievably horrendous acts. I think in most places those acts would still be misdemeanors sorry to say. There are a lot of Federal regulations on admitting seeing eye dogs into public buildings where ordinary pets are not allowed. So I was wondering about Federal protection laws that might be on the books for them also.

 

[Bigdog]

Since a service dog is worth about $10,000 there may be additional charges that apply, similar to theft becoming grand theft when the dollar amount exceeds a certain level.

My personal opinion, this should be a capital crime.

 

[Guest]

Since a service dog is worth about $10,000 there may be additional charges that apply, similar to theft becoming grand theft when the dollar amount exceeds a certain level.

Thanks for the information Bigdog.