Cat killer probably 'more bad than mad'

FLEUR COGLE

It is too soon to say Timaru is nursing a potential serial killer, a psychology professor says.

Many Herald readers took to the internet this week to express their horror over the killings of a hedgehog and family cat, which police have called "premeditated and sadistic".

A Waimataitai family woke on Tuesday morning to discover the cut-up and positioned remains of their pet cat, and a hedgehog, outside their house.

People were quick to voice their concerns and rewards totalling $2708 for information leading to the prosecution of the perpetrator have been pledged.

Some people drew a link between violence to animals and violence against humans, a concern supported by overseas evidence, University of Waikato Associate Professor Marc Wilson said.

"There is research (mostly from the United States and Europe) that suggests that many people who end up coming to the attention of authorities for doing horrible things to people are much more likely than the rest of us to have done unpleasant things to animals, and often as children," Dr Wilson said.

However, one incident was not enough to say if people in Timaru should be worried, he said.

"We probably shouldn't over-react at this point and anticipate serial killings in Timaru. We don't know enough to know if we should be concerned.

"It's always possible that this was a one-off `prank' and that the experience was utterly sickening for whoever did it, in which case they may never do it again."

Dr Wilson said while an `average' person might have a cat put down, set traps for possums or use "other forms of more socially sanctioned animal killing", it was "very, very unusual to see this kind of mutilation".

Psychologist Arnold Chamove, a former Massey University lecturer, also noted it was unusual to see this type of behaviour.

"While the killing of the cat was unusual behaviour by definition in New Zealand, lower levels of such behaviour are seen every day by the SPCA," Dr Chamove said.

"The person who did this, I speculate, likes to be in control; lacks power in his [or] her life; [is] probably a male; was very likely to be the object of sustained physical punishment when they were a young child.

"People who are not the object of sustained – I don't mean occasional and brief – physical punishment rarely use sustained physical punishment when they are older."

About publicising the act, Dr Chamove said there had been no consequences – no one shunning the perpetrator or refusing to talk with them – so far.

"This person will not be advertising their `achievement', and they will not be receiving recognition from their peers, so the more people know about it, the better and the more likely that more and more people will get to know who has done this."

Dr Wilson said the behaviour of the animal killer in this case "probably shouldn't be mixed up with mental illness".

"People can do all manner of unusual things as a manifestation of mental illness but the focus here is probably more on the `bad' than `mad'. For example, antisocial personality disorder is associated with a great deal of unpleasant offending but isn't a mental illness in the same way that schizophrenia or depression are."

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