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Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
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Fitting sentence unlikely if 'man' accused of starving and torturing two animals is found guilty May 5, 2014 Calgary Sun Investigators say he bought the dog and kitten on Kijiji, starving and torturing the two pets for months before dumping them in a back alley with their muzzles taped. If found guilty of the cruel and repulsive crime, 19-year-old Nicolino Ivano Camardi could face five long years in prison. But not likely. Instead, a guilty verdict will almost certainly result in a fraction of the five-year maximum, and the young fellow will be set free in a matter of weeks, provided he behaves himself on the inside. Also, if guilty, Camardi will be told not to own pets for a few years, lest another easily obtained animal ends up starved, beaten and bound in an alley. All in all, it won’t be much of a punishment. “Animals are considered to be property under the law, which minimizes in a sense their suffering,” said Brad Nichols, manager of cruelty investigations for the Humane Society. “In my experience with these kinds of cases, when you do get incarceration as a conviction and sentence, it’s generally in the range of about 90 days.” Ninety days. That would place Calgary’s latest case of pet cruelty far behind the 17 months given to a Vancouver man last year after he filmed horrific torture featuring cats thrown against furniture, burned and sprayed in the face with chemicals. But 90 days is certainly a lot better than the house arrest handed to a Calgary puppy killer in 2012, after he threw an 11-week-old Pomeranian pup off a balcony and then went down to kick it to death, before taking a picture of the corpse to e-mail his girlfriend. Canada is not a country known to throw the book at animal abusers, and even the country’s worst cases of sadism and suffering are measured in conditional sentences, small fines and the occasional stint in jail. Camardi, if he’s found guilty, will likely spend less than three months in prison, for what appears to be a disturbingly meticulous case of cruelty. That’s not to take anything away from the fine work of the Calgary Humane Society and Calgary Police Service, in making an arrest on a difficult case — one apparently solved with tips from people close to the suspect, and forensic follow up. “It’s terrible and it’s disgusting,” said John Wutzke, the neighbour who found the dead husky on Jan. 9. “If someone can do something like that to an animal, a little kid could be next.” A conviction may not add up to much jail time, but it would make the entire city aware of the sadistic potential of the guilty party. Nichols says it appears the suspect kept the animals just long enough to cause maximum suffering before he dumped them in a Willow Park alley, a short walk from his family home on Bonaventure Dr. S.E. “This on the face of it appears to be intentional cruelty, not the average abuse type case where someone gets really mad at an animal for house soiling or something and loses their temper,” said Nichols. “This was methodical, chronic and it ended in the animals’ deaths.” A necropsy showed the dog suffered chronic malnourishment, while the cat suffered injuries to its head, tail and hind limbs before being strangled. On Monday, Camardi made a brief first appearance in provincial court via closed-circuit TV on the animal abuse charges. Duty counsel Bob Haslam asked that the case return to court Wednesday in hopes Camardi can have a lawyer appear by then. Camardi did not address the court, other than to thank Judge Bob Wilkins after he was told his matter would be back in court then. Camardi also has other legal troubles, court records show. He faces three allegations he breached probation between March 14 and 16 by having contact with individuals he was not permitted to see. And he is charged with unlawful confinement, uttering threats against one of those women, directly and to a police officer, and breaching the no-contact provision again on March 9. Those charges are back before the court on May 12. NB: The poor dog and cat were found dead in a Calgary alley with their mouths taped shut in January. Too bad the same won’t be done to him. An eye for an eye. Table of Reporting Animal Cruelty in the United States. In Canada, contact the relevant authorities in your community such as the SPCA, humane society, or police department. Let animal advocacy and animal justice organizations know, as well. Undercover investigations are critical in bringing public awareness as to what really goes on behind the scenes. |