rage consumes me. these kids should die
 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003500016,00.html

CRUEL yobs killed a tiny gerbil by strapping it to a firework and launching it into the sky.

The five men - all in their early twenties - blew-up the pet in a sick pre-meditated attack.

The thugs bought a pack of rockets in a shop and then cheekily asked the owner for an elastic band to tie the baby animal to the rocket.

Earlier the gang had posed as genuine pet lovers to buy the £3.50 rodent.

Soon after the gang were spotted by locals blowing-up the animal on a recreation ground.

Victor Ramsey, 61, who owns the general store in Chesterton, where the gang bought the rockets, said: "When I sold one of the lads the fireworks he said, 'have you got a rubber band',

"I said OK, I have got one on my till I can give you. A few minutes later another customer came into the shop and said ’If you knew what those b*****ds have done with your firework you would never have sold it to them'.

"It's horrific, you just can’t believe it."

His wife added: "I was disgusted by it. If they do that sort of thing to an innocent animal, you wonder what they are capable of. It made me sick."

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA described the incident as "an horrific attack" and urged any one with information to come forward.

She added: "On the face of it, this would seem to be an incident that beggars belief.

"It is obviously something we are very concerned about."


when i read the 'gerbil tied to a rocket' i laughed. i wish i could say i did not, but i did.

then i read the story.

i understand that it is a gerbil. i understand that this kind of thing has happened for centuries.

i also understand that going out of your way to murder life is wrong and sick. these guys are very lucky i cannot punish them.

i am totally serious when i say that these guys deserve death. what's sad is they will probably get off easy.

I'll bet they videotaped it. The latest thing for morons to do seems to be to videotape their crimes for easy prosecution later.

Send the sobs off to boot camp or something.

there are worse ways for gerbils to die

ARMAGEDDON!!

Stupid. I dare not say more.

We should strap them to a rocket and shoot them off. And these people are supposed to be older and more mature than me? Ha.

I say stick it up their butt instead, and light it.

The dangers of having too much free time...
Get these guys a hobby!

I can't believe that someone could possess such cruelty, and to do so in a public place... just horrific.

When I read the first line, i thought we'd be talking about 10 year olds... but 20 year olds? WTF?!?!?! These guys are sick!

Man, what's up with all the abuse to innocent animals lately anyway.

Those guys must be pretty stupid and immature to do something like that.

worse things happen to mice and rats all the itme in labs

I hope they don't blame it on violence in video games or movies.

I'm with Z. Let's drive these retards off of a cliff.

I really do wonder what is happening these days with people - we really do seem to be getting thicker as a race. Kids who think it is fun to throw stones at trains, blinding drivers, kids who drop bricks from bridges over motorways, killing many, people who do the stupidist of things. The only thing I can think of to say about these kids is I look forward to reading about them on the darwin awards one day. Then they will get the attention they are craving so much...

So much rage for fucking rodents.

statistics show that many multiple murderers and sadistic killers got their start with animals...

however

let's not get too out of line with this discussion. "blah blah they fucking suck" and "blah blah fucking retards" and so forth isn't intelligent discussion. i understand you have hard feelings against the people who perpetrated this, but form your feelings into intelligent statements or vent elsewhere. thanks. :)

I agree. They are not normal, and the ringleader probably needs professional help and the others need a backbone, but come on, they were rodents. I've killed a few in mousetraps, and am personally responsible for the death of many many animals. Just today, I washed my hair with shampoo that might have been tested on animals (rodents) I pulled money out of my leather wallet to pay for the meat that I ate, wore leather shoes and belt, and am planning to go home and attempt to kill lots and lots of fire ants and eat more meat. I bet most of you have too. Get over it.

Be realistic in your desire to punish these kids.

*when i put some thought into my comments moderators will stop editing me*

let'em know who's boss, I say, there are a shitload of rodents out there, they outnumber us by far. If we go soft on them now, they might get cocky and start taking over the place. I say we keep them at the alert now and then, show them who are the toughest mammals around.

What happen to the good old days when people just shoved a rodents in their ass?

it is one thing to kill pests inside of your home however it is another thing to go out of your way to purchase one to have killed im sure death is no way to pay for this crime but some kind of punishment is necessary

the only cruel animal is man

That poor animal. I agree with ART that the only cruel animal is man. This is why I have more sympathy for animals than I do people.

I don't find anything funny about what they did.

All good points, dy156. Perchance, have you ever taken an ethics course?
Once you get through relativism, egoism, and other introductory material, you make your way to more contemporary moral philosophies that focus on intent. Morality, and immorality, is a product of intentions.
That's what angers me, and the other posters. We eat meat because, on some level, we have to (don't argue vegetarianism here because I see that point; I'm merely using an example you presented); we wear leather because, on some level, we need clothing. We didn't kill the cow simply because we enjoyed it, or merely wanted to - we did it with a purpose.
Therein lies the difference; as mentioned, it's a matter of intent.

it's a gerbil for crying out loud! Richard Gere kills them in his ass and no one cares.......why should playing "rodet nasa" be any different. if you buy one and really try to take care of it.......it'll never live more than a month anyway!
send the little fella off with a bang!

I'm not a vegetarian and my greater concerns do not include gerbils, but my question for you is this: Do you eat chicken?

That is pretty sick and immature, even worse that they're in their 20's.

Heh. Are you trying to say that you shove them in your ass? ;)

Some people just don't deserve to live. I can understand hunting, as long as it is done humanly, but killing an innocent creature like that - is just sick and wrong. I bet these bastards get off with a fine to. People say we need lesser punishments, well, the flip side of that is having sickos like this walking among us. And how many want to bet these little F****s were either on drugs or had recently used them?

Wow! phredgreen, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Yes, animal abuse is an almost universal pre-cursor to things like serial killing - meaning that almost all seriously demented and serial killers have a long history of cruelty to animals - then they aren't stopped and they progress, etc. etc. ... Next thing you know there's a head in the fridge.

So, frown on it - bad guys, etc. ok.

On the other hand... The relationship between abuse and serial killing is neither causal nor directly inevitable. Many millions of kids (boys) do these things and grow up normally. This stuff is pretty widespread.

On the other hand - WTF? these guys were 20, not 10 years old. I guess it would be nice if the UK had some jobs for dos' yobs.

On the other other hand - CALM DOWN! - It is only a freekin' gerbil for cripes sake. I mean, the level of scorn and horror expressed by people over the fate of one silly gerbil is pretty funny and more than a little out of hand. While I don't condone the act - it was a gerbil folks, not someones infant. Don't get your panties in too big a heap - I'm sure they'll make more.

to me, it's the fact that their main intentions were seriously sick and twisted. i mean, a lot of us have obviously caught mice/rats/voles/whatever in traps, when they're in our homes and potentially threatening our health. people who own mouse traps aren't intentionally sadistic or malicious really, they're just trying to control a problem...but this is way different

those who speak of it 'just being a baby gerbil' I ask a question. i know the question sounds silly because we are the masters of our planet. but if you can honestly say 'it is only a gerbil' i ask you to ponder this:


What if you had an infant or child? what if you are the scum of society, those who make peasants kings. what if your masters thought it would be amusing to strap your infant on a missle to watch it blow up?

i'm not saying humans and gerbils are equal blahblah, i'm trying to just ask a serious question.

murdering things is wrong. killing rats is horrible but neccesary. it's numbers. you have millions upon millions who have (i'm estimating, excuse me) 30-50 babies a year.... now give them disease. they wouldo verun and kill everything.

i'm the guy who will kill if needed. call me cold but death is acceptble. if needed. like thinning deer here in the south. there is little choice.

but if i saw someone haul a deer or dog around and hurt it or torture it or whatever.... i dunno what i'd do but it'd be ugly.

in order for the ecosystems to continue (if people don't fuck them up first) there are some things that have to die. but not tortoures, not for the fuck of it.

murder for amusement.... someone murdering your baby for amusement. fuck that. those guys don't deserve to live on this planet that tries to somewhat balance life.

it is incomphrehensible for me to see these kind of acts. especially people who preach human rights or anti bullies and then support murderers.

i hope they die.

and i'm perfectly calm

But for progression of health studies and science...Are these guys perfoming some sort of health experient? I didn't hear about them buying any Sweet'n low!!

Everything that needs/should have been said has as well as everything that shouldn't. That is my comment

Asta!!

Does laughing at this make me a horrible person?

If it does than just about everyone who reads this thread would be concidered a horrible person.

In all seriosness it's funny, but sick. It has been done for centuries. Should the kids be punished? ... the only way they'd learn would be to shove an m-80 up their ass. As for the rodent, it is a horible way to die, but proly painless. Here's hoping the rockets were big enough to make it a quick death.

They're not....trust me. It might have been torn up a little but more than likely it at most only took off small portions of it's body and the poor thing suffered and blead to death. Plus if you ever see them on the floor after they've been fired you notice they are intact. Only small burn marks are found on them so it didn't explode at all it burned the poor little fucker badly.

Asta!!

ill admit, i laughed when i first started to read the article. im not going to lie. my mood obviously changed as i read the article. ive never killed anything unless it was posing a threat to me (i.e. ants biting me, flys in my house puking on everything, etc.) i could never bring myself to hunt (but hold absolutely nothing against those who do), its just the kind of person i am. do these people deserve harsh punishment? my thoughts would be no. ill agree with a hefty fine but nothing dealing imprisonment and the like. i think a better alternative would be something along the lines of having to go to an animal cruelty class, or writing a letter, something that would educate the person who commited the act. why? i hold human life much higher than animal life. killing a gerbil just because is stupid, but some humans are stupid most of the time. i guess ill care about a gerbil getting killed just because when people stop killing people just because. there seems to be A LOT more of that going on anyway.

That's the kind of sick thing I'd expect from messed up bored kids, the fact that the guys were in their twenties was very disturbing.

I knew "Gerbil Rocketeer" starring Tom Green and the spin-off video game for XBOX would be trouble...

-Mikey

Thats the kind of behavior you expect from 10 year olds who still haven't developed moral and ethical behavior yet, but these guys are 20! Legal adults living in society with us and they behave like this. Why should they be trusted around people? There is no telling what else they are capable of. This is truely digusting.

You are all crazy hippies for nagging this much over a stupid gerbil.

agreed, but you forgot overly sensitive

there will always be people doing this, they have been forever
there are weird people, just accept it
but you just hear about it now, because the news media knows some people will get up in arms about it
suckers...

I think that might be a tad harsh...

Should they be punished? Yes.

The death penalty for gerbil murder is not quite appropriate. If caught, I think they could do some community service, pay a fine and take some sort of class. Maybe give them a harsher suspended sentence - contingent on them keeping clean for a year.

They need to learn a lesson and be stopped, yes. Any repeat performance would then be cause for more serious punishment.

I wasn't condoning this bad act earlier - just trying to put it into perspective.

Re: rage consumes me. these kids should die
 

Over a fucking GERBIL??? What in the hell is wrong with you?

I stepped on a bug today. It's an animal also, so I guess I deserve the same, huh? Or do "animal rights" only extend to the cute and furry ones?

That said, something is wrong with those people if they're in their 20s, and their idea of fun is to tie fireworks to a gerbil. They could definitely stand to get lives.

For more gerbil cruelty check out:

www.joecartoon.com ;)

i say we stuff a fire work up their butt.

this is not acceptable, this like the people that barbequed the kitten (sorry to bring that up)

dont ever tell me where these punks are, they will get hurt

Anybody who goes out of their way to intentionally hurt another living thing, is FUCKED UP. It really makes me question the human race as a whole to be honest with you. I'm an animal lover and like them alot more than people most of the time. Yeah the article sounds funny, but tend to be more prone to laugh at stuff such as those guys had to undergo plastic surgery after wards! HAHAHA! I hope their nasal cavitites were exposed, that would be a riot! To people out there who do that type of stuff, need to be alone in a room with animal rights activists for 20 mins. Then try to walk out. Or left alone in the wilderness in Africa and have to run from the lions!

i read in the papers that a guy(who l8r got arrested) blew up a dogs anus with a cracker!
hope he got a bomb stuck up his ass also...
or better...hope his cellmate is a 7 foot giant homosexual called BUBBA

What the hell were they trying to find out, anyway? Will the gerbil....live? Ack.

When I was about 16, we used to catch barn mice out in the hay pile, douse them with diesel fuel, and torch them, then watch the little bastards streak away, a little fireball runnin as fast as possible. We thought it was hilarious.

In retrospect, that was a very very terrible thing to do. We had a bad mouse problem, and needed to get rid of the mice, but we should have done it quickly and humanely.

These guys are still young. We do not know the area they live in, the societal norms for thier age. I have known many immature 20 year olds, so I can understand them doing what they did. Is it right.. no.. but I do believe that they will "Grow up" one day and feel bad for what they did.

As the bible says folks, Judge not lest ye be judged. Dont hate someone you know almost nothing about, just be aware that some people do not have the priveledge we do.

You know how a lot "badass" people get popular, hated, or praised for their no bullshit policies? consider me the same for animal rights.

call me a weirdo, cool. call me a hippy, wee. call me a pussy, okay. when it comes to protecting life that is defenseless may they be animals, elderly people, disabled folk, babies or whatever i will step up and do everything in my power to see the offenders' life ruined.


if they were kids i'd be revolted, but hey, they're kids. these guys are in their twenties.

no way in hell can anybody be dumb enough in america to do such deeds without severe punishment.


if you go out of your way , especially pay for an animal, to torture or murder it then your life is fucking worthless. you have no value. i've seen pennies infinitly more valuble than those three.


i called for death. maybe i did go a bit far, although if it happened i'd not regret it.

look. if you are an adult prepare to pay the consequences of stupidity and cruelty. i think giving the three guys third degree burns would be effeciant.


if standing up and saying I will not tolerate anyone bringing unnecesary pain and anguish to a life makes me a weirdo then by all means, call me so.

i'd rather be a weirdo than a hate monger or someone who can't find their balls and stand up to people. I am severly disabled and i'm ready to do whatever to see this shit stopped.

some people with grreat health who turn their heads so they can be uninvolved make me fucking sick. pussies.


so yeah. i am a weirdo with my testicles firmly intact. please don't call me normal like the people who do these things or don't care; for that is true shame.

Just the thought of strapping a gerbil to a rocket and sending it airborn is hilarious.

It is kinda mean though.

very very sick

Just out of wonder, did they mean boys and not yobs? Or is yobs a British term of some sorts.

I am with Fuzzix on this one. As a child I killed frogs and things like that. I really didn't "think" about what I was doing at the time. I never thought about the pain I was causing the animal.

NOW. I would never kill anything unless I was going to eat it, or there was some other distinct pupose like Costello said, eradicating fire ants etc.

The fact that this behaviour is happening with a group of 20+ year old guys is a bit disturbing.

....

I don't much care what people do to rodents, but I don't much care what people do to stupid humans either. I'd laugh just as hard if someone blew these guys to bits.

This is the first sign that we get to see of their future criminal offerings. These bastards should have to do some type of community service/anger management type stuff instead of getting a smack on the wrist. I do not know if 'animal rights' advocates are as outspoken and active in the UK as they are here in america but I hope they are.

Not that I believe that any of that would help them, but it would at least inconvenience them enough to make them dwell on what they did. Mental midgets with anger issues...

People kill animals everyday. Sad but true.

They are just sick shits.

edited by rogue49 for flaming

I haven't taken any philosophy course other than Logic, and that was just because I could get it to count as a math credit.


Excuse me while I try to get philosophical.

Whether these kids deserve harsh punishment I guess, philosophically, depends on what you value most. Is relativism thinking that some things matter more than others, as in "well, it's all relative."?
I suppose I was thinking that their intent was to blow up rodents with rockets for their amusement, and probably among some of them, just to participate in a group activity and gain acceptance. (Hence, the comment about how some of them probably needed to grow a backbone. I doubt that all of them individually would have done this.)
There were good points made about how the rodents probably did not blow up quick and painlessly, but were burned and then bled to death. I had not thought about that. I might be epicurian(delving deep into my memory of philosophy) in thinking that pain is bad; happiness is good, and that those rodents suffered about as much as the animals that died to feed me, or because their mounds irritated me, and the rodents, having a short life span, were bound to die before too long anyway, and that their lives weren't as valuable as human lives because, well, I'm a human, and I have some homo-sapiens sapiens-centric attitudes. If in fact, the rodents suffered a slow, painful death, that's a little worse, but not as bad as a humane, but untimely death for the stupid people that did this. It's not so much not valuing life and condemning their intent to kill, but putting their intent into perspective instead of viewing in in a philosophical vaccuum. Go ahead, call me a relativist!

Okay, done. Resume normal response:

I said they needed help and backbones, but they don't need to die.