Justice

CidMiLgUUAALQeeHe was found wandering the streets of Lancaster, California. Like thousands, probably millions, of other stray dogs, he was sick and starving. Nothing but bones and matted fur, an infected wound festering on the side of his face, days from death.

Anemic, his intestines wriggling with parasitic worms and foxtails (those scrubby plants that grow in parking lots) embedded throughout his body causing infections even in his eyes and lodging in his carotid artery, George teetered between life and death for almost two weeks before finally stabilizing.

Two street dogs from Turkey find a feeding station. New legislation is aimed at preventing them from being harmed.
Two street dogs from Turkey find a feeding station. New legislation is aimed at preventing them from being harmed.

Animal rights groups recently applauded Turkey for its recent amendment to its Animal Welfare Act that makes it a crime punishable by jail to deliberately harm an animal.

The amendment, proposed by the Istanbul Bar Association’s Animal Rights Commission, also jacked up the rates of fines for animal abuse, which is how Turkey has penalized offenders in the past.

Kamloops Provincial Court is being watched by animal lovers this week as a man charged with animal cruelty for strangling Oreo cat was found guilty of causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal.

Steven Seidel, 28, has confessed to killing the animal, a four-year-old black and white unneutered male cat, on March 14, 2013.

He told the court the cat was peeing and pooping around the apartment and his live-in girlfriend Moriah Smith was pregnant.

Seidel and Smith apparently knew enough about cats to determine their poop could be hazardous to their unborn child. But they didn’t know enough, or seek more information, into why the unneutered male was actually behaving that way.