Editorial: Poor pets, but what of cows?

OPINION: Few things stir public debate and distaste like the horrific abuse of small children. If there is one issue that nearly raises the same amount of angst though, it is abuse of animals.

We have seen that in the past week as details have emerged of three cases that have moved even the most hardened of hearts.

The cases were described as "chilling" by SPCA national chief executive Robyn Kippenberger and they have prompted Prime Minister John Key to consider backing legislation which would raise the maximum sentence for animal abusers from three years in jail to five.

What prompted this outrage, in case you can't remember?

It was revealed early last week that Te Ahu Aaron Mankelow had fed five live kittens to his pitbull dog when he went to a party in Gisborne last year. He recorded their deaths on a cellphone. He pleaded guilty to five charges of wilful cruelty to animals. His family reacted in style to his actions – abusing and offering obscene gestures to reporters who tried to question him on his act of madness.

Another man, David Hamuera Snook, was sentenced to prison for two years and four months after tearing the head off a kitten in front of his South Auckland family. He was drunk and his children got to watch the headless body of the kitten run across the floor.

To top all this off, more than 30 dogs were shot dead on a Wellsford farm after a dispute between neighbours. The circumstances are less clear than the two which have had sequels in court, but it has ramped up the mood of the nation further.

Only child abuse is more despicable, it seems, than animal abuse.

Mr Key and the National caucus will tomorrow debate the topic. Backing Tauranga MP Simon Bridges' private member's bill to lift jail time will surely be the appropriate, if token, legislative reaction.

There is one glaring question that needs to be asked through all of this though: what about the cows?

In recent weeks the Waikato Times has reported on a case at a Waikato saleyards where Clive Dalton, a sometimes writer for the paper and a retired agricultural scientist, photographed emaciated cows. He is an expert, and claimed they were in such poor condition they should not even have been transported to the saleyards. An Agriculture Ministry investigation could not trace who the seller or buyer was, though the SPCA is still investigating.

But some in the farm community have written to the paper telling Dr Dalton he should keep his nose out of their business. Others disputed how skinny the cows were. One newspaper reader cancelled his subscription because the paper had the temerity to cover the issue.

Thankfully a Federated Farmers spokesman showed a more enlightened view, saying he had not seen cows in such a poor state even through the last drought.

So, we ask again, what about the cows?

Is their plight any less important than cats and dogs? Can we ever justify ill-treatment of an animal?

- © Fairfax NZ News