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I'm from the country woods of the South. There are always a few nuts, and now that I live in a larger city I find about the same proportion of nuts who think it's okay to hurt animals. Hurting animals is a powerful indicator of deep, profound, dangerous mental illness. I've had to put pets down, and where I grew up "you shoot your own dog." That's horrifying to some of the people I now know, but there are times when it's the only mercy you can do. It is one of the most psychologically traumatic things that can happen, to have to kill your own animal. I don't think dogs are people - they're not, they're dogs. But the way a person treats a trusting animal is a powerful indicator of their character.
As for savages who think it's funny to drag an animal to death, or burn a cat alive, or whatever else - they are deeply sick and dangerous, and possibly actually evil. In my opinion, a pattern of abuse such as this should end up with the person being removed from society - either incarcerated for life, or put down for the protection of everyone else.
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