Man who decapitated dog gets 8 years in prison

[Joanne98]

Source: MSNBC

FARMINGTON, N.M.— A New Mexico man who
admitted to decapitating a dog using a chain
saw has been sentenced to eight years in
prison.

Teddy Sexton, 32, of Aztec, had pleaded guilty
to extreme cruelty to animals, which carries a
sentence of up to 18 months in prison.
Defense attorney Cosme Ripol told the
Farmington Daily Times that because Sexton
has a prior criminal history, he faced up to 15
years, including eight mandatory.

At a sentencing hearing Monday, Sexton told
state District Judge Thomas Hynes he tried to
slice the dog's throat on Sept. 18 and "that
didn't work."

"I did the one thing I shouldn't have and
severed the head with a chain saw," Sexton
said.

The District Attorney's Office received more
than 600 e-mails from animal activists
worldwide, asking prosecutors to pursue the
maximum penalty.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39746267/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#

[peace frog]

1. Despicable, horrendous

Sickening.

[jsmall]

11. I can't get worked up about it

We slam metal bolts into cow's heads for meat, what's the difference? We hang chickens upside down and literally pull their heads off. What's the difference? I'm not being a smart-ass, I just can't get worked up about how animals are killed as long as it's not tortured first.

[veganlush]

17. you're so right

people who consume a meat-based diet supplied from factory farms, are basically contracting this very thing on a daily basis. If you purchase the products of factory farms you are hiring someone to carry out the brutal crime of confinement, torture and brutal death of animals that are just as innocent as the dogs and cats we call family. And if you're not killing your own food, your getting it from factory farms 99% of the time. The treatment of animals in factory farms is like life in a concentration camp, ending with a brutal death. As a society, we value the lives of dogs and cats, worry about the polar bear, as we should, but don't see any problem with the systemic torture of our fellow mortals who suffer and die in the service of our unhealthy diet. But you'll find many many people who don't understand why their compartmentalized minds are being questioned at all.

Boycott Cruelty-GO VEGAN!

[AlbertCat]

22. are basically contracting this very thing on a daily basis.

Huh.... I've never seen "Dog, beheaded with chain saw" at the grocery store. What does it run a pound? Bet it tastes of chicken!

:eyes:

[Bette Noir]

24. You can't call it a crime if it's not illegal.

[veganlush]

35. I'll call it a crime against nature. But your right..

many people think animal welfare laws protect farm animals. few do. If you treated a dog that way, you'd get in trouble, and rightly so. People who wish to eat animal products should be required to raise and kill them as humanely as possible, and should be required to do the killing themselves, and not contract it out, which many do to avoid culpability. Factory farms are big businesses and compassion simply doesn't help the bottom line, which is all that counts to owners and stock holders.

[uppityperson]

32. Boycott cruelty, BUY LOCAL!

I don't like all the mice killed when soybean fields get sprayed and harvested. Griding them into the combine just seems cruel to me.

[AmandaMae]

57. +1. Everyone who is disturbed by this story, extend that compassion to all animals and go vegan.

[AlbertCat]

21. We slam metal bolts into cow's heads for meat, what's the difference?

A chain saw thru the neck doesn't sound as humane as instantly "pithing" a cow for a good reason.

So the guy fed the dog to his family? Then I guess it is just the same!

There's "senseless" and then there's....

[northernlights]

27. and you don't think having your head cut off with a chain saw is torture?

A bolt into the brain is instant death. Chain saw...not so much.

I hope this despicable shit is dismembered by chain saw one fucking piece at a time

[tabasco]

42. Dogs were bred by MAN to work for us.

Man shares a special relationship with the dog.

Cows were bred for food.

Sorry for you if you lack the ability to understand the difference.

[pipoman]

53. Tell it to Mexico and China and many other cultures around the world

Tacos de Perro and all that..

[AlphaCentauri]

56. There are tacos de Armadillo and Chicharrones de snake ..LOL

[tabasco]

64. What's their address?

I'll write to them and tell them they are all fucked up.

Or, they can read it right here at DU:

ANYONE WHO EATS DOGS IS A SICK FUCKER.

Sincerely,

Tabasco

[pipoman]

72. There are those in other places who feel very similarly

about, say, cattle or hogs. Hunger also tends to bend ones sensibilities..

[sasquuatch55]

20. Hang that sick fucker!

nt

[gateley]

2. Good. nt

[slackmaster]

3. What on Earth was a dog doing using a chain saw?

:crazy:

If it had come after me, I might just have decapitated it too.

[Ter]

4. Huh?

No comprende.

[slackmaster]

7. Misplaced modifier

As written, the sentence indicates that the dog was using a chain saw.

It's the equivalent of "Piano sold to woman with spindly legs."

[brendan120678]

9. Slackmaster was commenting on the poor grammar...

of the article's author.

The man (who is a sick, vile person) decapitated a "a dog using a chain saw."

In reality, the man used a chain saw to decapitate the dog.
He didn't decapitate a dog who was using a chain saw.

[Nostradammit]

5. I cannot find the words to register my disgust with you.

I can't believe you are still allowed to post here.

[slackmaster]

8. Journalists who butcher the English language disgust me

:hi:

[LanternWaste]

48. I imagine we all have an...

I imagine we all have an ineffectual, misplaced and useless segue from time to time.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Right. Grammar nazis are just awful people.

???

What is TRULY disgusting is this:

At a sentencing hearing Monday, Sexton told
state District Judge Thomas Hynes he tried to
slice the dog's throat on Sept. 18 and "that
didn't work."

"I did the one thing I shouldn't have and
severed the head with a chain saw," Sexton
said.

----

As if slitting its throat was acceptable, and it was the chainsaw that made what he did reprehensible.

[Nostradammit]

19. It's not about grammar, believe me

It's about a pattern of trying to be humorous about
truly vile things.

[AlbertCat]

26. trying to be humorous about truly vile things.

Professional writers who don't know 5th grade grammar ARE truly vile. That's what the joke is about.


The killing of that dog is vile too.... but not what the joke is about.

Over-righteous, trumpeted outrage is kinda vile too.

[AlbertCat]

23. Grammar nazis are just awful people.

Especially when it's grammar from someone who writes for a living...like a journalist.

[Bette Noir]

25. Get over yourself.

[uppityperson]

33. grammar nazis are disgusting and should be banned?

perhaps you missed the point of the post? Mocking something poorly written is not particularly "trying to be humorous about truly vile things."

[Nostradammit]

37. Were it one isolated case of mocking something I'd agree with you.

[slackmaster]

44. I'm mocking the cold disrespect with which a writer and editor treated this heartbreaking story

What's so hard to understand about that?

If you can't handle my sense of humor or my sarcasm, I suggest you put me on Ignore.

If you believe I've violated the forum rules, you know what you are supposed to do about that.

[closeupready]

62. I put him on ignore ages ago. Never have regretted it.

n/t

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[slackmaster]

40. "My dog was hit by a truck running across the street" is technically correct English too

That doesn't make it OK.

[Kolesar]

58. You need a hobby

[slackmaster]

59. Read my profile

:hi:

I was a professional writer for several years, and cannot abide obvious abuses of the English language.

[ProudDad]

67. The saddest thing is the rampant

inability to conjugate the verb "to be" among USAmericans!

:hi:

[Regret My New Name]

73. Isn't posting on DU considered a hobby?

[bc3000]

39. good point!

It was clearly self defense.

[timefortherevolution]

6. My god. Unbelievable.

[DesertDiamond]

10. That makes me happy!!

[HillbillyBob]

12. Sick bas**** . We have 5 rescue dogs

1 would have been put down because she was no pure breed. She is smart and she is my seizure alert dog. 2 was a surrender to the shelter when her family lost their jobs and home. 3 was beaten and starved and landed at a local shelter, she is very pretty a white collie mix and there were several people that wanted her because she is pretty and would have treated her like a pretty brooch. She is part Maremma a big white dog..they are not exactly pet material she can be who she is here. 4 is a mix that did not turn out to be the hunting dog they wanted. the rest of the litter went to the shelter I don't know what happened to them. The latest addition is a purebreed beagle, kicked and starved then abandoned in my yard.
Its pitiful he still cowers when you talk to him, hes been here about 6 weeks now and doing better.

As my partner says if they will abuse animals its only a matter of time before they get around to people.

[foxfeet]

13. I wish him upon himself.

[MilesColtrane]

14. I hear the Eagles need somebody to replace Michael Vick this Sunday.

Seems like a good match.

[Tx4obama]

15. $400,000 of taxpayer money to keep him in prison for 8 years is ridiculous

this is part of why America is going broke!
We need more mental institutions and less prisons, especially the private prisons.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. This degree of animal cruelty deserves prison - 2 or 3 years, followed

by a LOT of therapy.

Even then, that might not do it - this kind of stuff is often a precursor to serial killings. The next decapitation might be a teenage girl.

[AlbertCat]

28. This degree of animal cruelty deserves prison

So does getting a dog and then just tying it up outside and throwing food at it every once in a while... or years. And then moving and just leaving the dog.

This happens way more than decapitating anything with a chain saw.

You should have to take a test, some classes and prove you are responsible before you can have a pet.

[Kolesar]

30. People moving off--I see that in the TV shows and I just don't get it

These people don't act like adults. Are they so stupid that they don't think to call the government, or something?

[RaleighNCDUer]

61. And if you fail the pet test, forget about having kids. nt

[ProudDad]

68. "The next decapitation might be a teenage girl."

Typical ridiculous DU hyperbole from the knee-jerk vengeful...

[LisaL]

36. I sincerely doubt it is going to be cheaper to keep someone

in a mental institution than in prison.

[w4rma]

51. In the long term it would be because that would mean the person would be more likely to be

rehabilitated by release.

Of course present day executives only care about the next quarter's profit since they plan to skip out after pay out, ASAP.

[ProudDad]

69. Of course it is cheaper to treat someone's mental illness

than to lock them up in prison...

Here in the Corporate States of USAmerica they ALWAYS choose the least effective most expensive way of dealing with things...

It pumps up the GDP!

[harun]

45. Kind of what I was thinking. He may have just been too stupid to know a better way

to put the dog down. Not saying that is true, but possible.

[Lance_Boyle]

65. Right. How much do secure mental institutions cost compared to prisons?

You make an economic argument in your subject line and then smash it to bits with the second sentence of your post.

[thereismore]

29. People get a lot less for killing humans. Or nothing at all. nt

[uppityperson]

34. Here's a better link, headline "Man who decapitated a pitbull is sentenced to 8 years"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39743572

[madmax]

38. Thought provoking on many levels

Being a rabid dog lover I was enraged. However, others pointed out that we eat meat and farm animals aren't treated well or necessarily killed humanely.

I'm a meat eater, but you Vegans are starting to wear me down. Damn logic! I can give up red meat but, chicken and fish idunno. At least it would be a step in the right direction. I'll think about it.

[pipoman]

54. I've never met anyone who loves rabid dogs before..

I, personally, like my dogs a little less aggressive and less lethal. ;)

[ProudDad]

70. I've cut WAY down on the meat

and try to purchase local, "humanely" raised meat...

But even now, I recognize that I still cause animals to be raised and killed for food...

But then, I shall eventually be worm food so it evens out... :)

[tabasco]

41. Fuck him. n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

43. What a sick piece of shit..nt

[bloomington-lib]

46. IMO keeping a dog chained up in the back yard all it's life is much more cruel

I'm trying to understand exactly what constitutes "extreme animal cruelty".

[Omaha Steve]

47. So few R's for mans best friend?

K&R!

[slackmaster]

49. The defense claimed that the dog had attacked one child and bitten another

Not that any of that would make it OK to decapitate the dog, but it would kind of invalidate the dog's status as man's best friend.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1771181.shtml?cat=0

[w4rma]

50. Dog bites 9 year old. Owner decides dog is a danger and has to be put down.

Rather than go to the vet to give it poison, he chooses to use a chainsaw. Bad judgment on the method, but I ****definitely**** don't think it warrants anywhere close to 8 years of this guy's life. He didn't do anything with malice towards anything or anyone else, not really even the dog.

[Xithras]

71. The problem isn't that he killed the dog, but the method he used to do it.

Living in the country, I've had to put down more than one feral or semi-feral dog over the years because they were attacking horses, chickens, my dogs, or menacing my kids. Irresponsible people dump their unwanted pets in the countryside, where most die. Some manage to survive by going native, and they become a danger.

It's perfectly legal to kill a dog, but you must do it HUMANELY. I can walk outside with some 00 in my shotgun, place it against the side of a dogs head, and pull the trigger without breaking any law. The resulting death, while messy, would be instant, painless, and legally humane.

I CAN NOT take that same dog, toss it into a fire pit, and burn it to death. That would be cruel and inhumane. It would also be prosecutable.

If the guy did not have the tools to humanely put the dog down, he should have taken it to someone who did. There is no excuse for wanton cruelty.

[bamacrat]

52. They should saw his head off with a butter knife. I would pay to watch.

[pipoman]

55. What ever..there are people who have received far less

time for egregious crimes against actual humans.

[xchrom]

60. Good. Nt

[wordpix]

63. did he get off on it? That's why crush video voyeurs like the videos

these are sick, sick people

[ProudDad]

66. And 8 years in a

fucking torture chamber euphemistically called a "prison" will perform exactly what useful purpose?

The criminal-injustice system in this country is what's insane...