Animal Cruelty: Pastime of the Deeply Defective

...but even more disturbing is the tendency of judges to let
off the malfeasor with light or non-existent penalties (probation).
There are laws that severely punish such deviance;
in Illinois, some acts are ranked as Class Four Felonies.

That begs the question: In states which do have stiff penalties
for cruelty to animals, why don't courts award more punitive
sentences? One reason, surely, is less regard for other than
human life. (Not that there's a great respect for people either.)
I have to laugh with contempt at judges with a less than
enlightened attitude here. Did they manage to skip Biology
or Zoology in secondary school or college? Don't they
know that cats, dogs, horses and other animals suffer in
the same way as you and me? But it's even worse if they
do know but don't care.

Not caring: the single greatest cause of every blight humanity
has visited upon this Earth. Selfishness, narrow tolerances,
strife,war, and every evil everyone can think of,  comes
from a "missing empathy gene". Add to that the human hubris
in refusing to remember that we ARE ANIMALS ALSO.

As the always vaunted  "higher" animal, humanity has an
obligation to live up to such stellar billing. The many
instances of cruelty and neglect of dependent/vulnerable
animals makes me challenge that comforting assertion.

Animal cruelty is the pastime of the deeply defective.
I include you lax judges, even if you don't know who
you are.