THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 5A
▼ THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
Bunny viciously murdered
Being drunk excuses many actions, like falling down a flight of stairs or calling an ex, for instance. It does not, however, excuse throwing someone's pet off of a third story balcony.
My bunny was taken out of her cage and thrown over the balcony the other week while I was out of town, by a guy who claimed he was too drunk to know what he was doing, according to a letter he sent me. In the letter, he also he said, "I don't know, I just wanted to kill it."
On September 28, that guy will go to court and emerge with little more than a slap on the wrist.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, Kansas is only one of nine states that don't consider animal cruelty, no matter how severe, a felony. In fact, according to Kansas law, the maximum penalty for someone convicted of animal cruelty is one year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
In another shocking case of animal cruelty in Wichita, a puppy, named Magnum, was found in a trash can with his front legs bound to his face, sporting a broken leg and covered in acid.
After futile rescue attempts, Magnum didn't live, and the fury of the public has caused two Kansas state senators, Phil Journey and Carolyn McGinn, to draft a bill, dubbed "Magnum's Bill," that would make animal cruelty a felony.
Legally, Kansas considers animal cruelty to be "when a person intentionally kills, injures, maims, tortures, mutilates any animal, or if that person abandons, or having physical custody of the animal, fails to provide such food, potable water, protection from the elements, opportunity for exercise and other care as is needed for the health or well-being of such kind of animal."
BETSY McLEOD
opinion@kansan.com
Recent discoveries that Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, frequently abused animals in his childhood has caused a larger awareness that hurting animals isn't just wrong, it's a sign that something isn't right unstairs.
In the August 1999 edition of Minnesota's Public Health Report, Michael Robin, M.S.W., wrote, "...persistent and extreme cruelty to animals in childhood suggests serious psychopathology.
Children who are cruel and sadistic to animals are at great risk of becoming increasingly violent, as they get older. The DSM-IV cites physical cruelty to animals as one of the 13 diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder."
The report also introduced a study by the FBI in the late 1970s of 36 convicted murderers, of which half claimed they maimed or tortured animals in their adolescence. When I get drunk, I tend to make a fool of myself and tell everyone how much I love them, not intentionally hurt their pets over a third-story balcony just for kicks.
blaming such a heinous action on being drunk.
It is appalling and disgusting that someone can even think of
I'm not a vegetarian. I wear leather and I love a good steak, and honestly, until this incident, I never knew that Kansas won't consider animal cruelty a felony.
But now that I do know, I'm sickened by those in Topeka that let these head cases off on animal cruelty charges with nothing more than a misdemeanor.
I understand that evolution in schools is a much bigger issue at Kansas' capitol than animal cruelty punishments, but maybe instead of focusing on a religious debate that makes us the laughingstock of the United States, we should petition to have our tax dollars be spent on something more worthwhile, like harser punishments for offenders who exhibit characteristics of serial killers.
Will Magnum's bill get passed? Will the man who killed my pet suffer more than a citation?
I'd like to say its up to you, but, unfortunately, the will of the people doesn't always get represented in the government.
You can join the Magnum force at 1053thebuzz.com, or e-mail senator Phil Journey at journey@senate.state.ks.us. Unlike humans, pets can give you unconditional love, and I think we take that for granted sometimes.
Sure, Coco was just a bunny, but she was my bunny, and I loved her even though all she did was eat, sleep and poop.
Think about that the next time your puppy chews up your favorite Steve Maddens, or when your cat shreds the term paper you stayed in Thursday night to finish.
And when I sat there, staring at the empty cage, I forgot about the time she peed in my lap, or when she ran under my bed and refused to come out until she had shred a good square foot of carpet.
None of those bad things mattered anymore because I had taken on a responsibility to take care of her, and I had let her down. Before I could realize how much I would miss her, she was gone.
♦ McLeod is an Overland Park sophomore in Journalism and French.
Kansan File Photo
Coco 2004-2005
▼ GUEST COMMENTARY
AEC should let students take classes
Let's talk about international students.
I think most of the students at the University don't know that the Applied English Center, AEC, is for international students who have just arrived in the United States and the University of Kansas.
They don't speak English well and cannot catch what people say.
So usually people who just arrived in America and don't have any other study abroad experience take some AEC classes.
Some of them even have to take all three of the classes, which are grammar, listening and speaking and writing, which also means that they cannot take other KU classes.
I talked to a Japanese guy who is taking all of the AEC classes. He said he was trying to learn English so hard, but still, he doesn't have many chances to talk to Americans.
Because all of his classmates are international students, and they are in the same level class, how can they improve?
He tries to go to parties, bars or clubs every weekend.
But even when he goes to parties, he goes with Japanese
students or other international students, and he ends up speaking Japanese after he's had a few drinks.
I remembered my own experience with AEC. Last year at this time, I was like those new international students, new to America and always confused about what people were saying, even though I thought my English was good when I was in China.
So I took three AEC classes, which were 16 credit hours, and I was not allowed to take other KU classes.
I was trying my best to know more American students and to practice my English. I wished I could take at least one KU class, because that would help my English. I talked to the AEC chancellors, but they just didn't allow me to do so.
I was really worried because although my classes were level four classes which are the highest level except the level to graduate, I still felt like those classes were too easy.
The teachers were good, but classes were too easy compared to the AEC English test. I was like the Japanese guy. I knew only how to speak English to international students.
At the end of the semester,
I passed the exam, but there
were still so many people who
didn't pass or just partially
passed.
They still had to take AEC classes and threw their money at the University.
So I started to take KU
classes last semester. I thought because I passed AEC, I would have no problem with KU classes, but I couldn't catch up with what my teachers said the first day.
My roommate, a Japanese girl who just passed AEC, had the same problem as me.
Because we didn't understand what professors were talking about, we had to take
"I thought because I passed the AEC, I would have no problems with KU classes, but I couldn't catch up with what my teachers said the first day."
our recorders and record the whole lecture, and organize the lecture after we got home.
I didn't know what AEC was used for. I spent a whole semester there and lots of money (one credit is equal to one credit of KU international student's tuition, which is more than $400). I took five classes last semester and I felt panic.
I know AEC helps some students, but I want to encourage it to please use different policies for students on different levels! If I could have taken even one KU class in the first semester, my listening skills would have improved a lot.
I couldn't help thinking, "Why do they speak so fast?" AEC teachers didn't speak that fast!"
I would have known how American people were talking and it would have been much easier for me last semester.
Most of the students here are adults. We know what we are doing. If we really think we can not handle it, we will drop it. And it is much better than going to parties, getting drunk and learning nothing.
- Yanting Wang
Journalism sophomore
Free All for
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
Editor's Note: Go to www.kansan.com to read like eight pages of Free for All comments.
Julie Oborny admits that it was short-sighted to complain about the Sex on the Hill cover being only white people, then immediately turns around and complains that one of the people being half-Korean means it's racist. What is wrong with her?
★
The next person to call in about Eric Jorgensen is automatically banned from Free For All for life.
+
I hate all these stickers that say "Support the Troops." Don't tell me who to support. I'll support whoever I want. You can also better support the troops by not sending them to war and keeping them alive than by buying stickers.
I see that sculpting the new jawhawk is pretty important news since we it has made the UDK twice. It's quite interesting to see the, uh, you know, man sculpting there. I'm thinking maybe we can get like a whole series of man sculpting the jayhawk. Maybe a special section every
Thursday on it like Jayplay.
Bill Braskey once scissor-kicked Angela Lansbury.
+
The Underground? More like the Under-employed.
Ashton Martin for President, and I'm a Republican.
If you're not going to teach creationism, which does have some scientific backing, then it's unethical to teach evolution.
No, Colin Powell and Condoleza Rice are not the most important minority leaders ever. Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr. they could do more to move the minority communities in one speech than Colin Powell and Condoleza Rice could do in their whole lives.
Who's with me on changing the name of the Grand Canyon to the Bomb-Diggity-McNasty Hole?
✩
+
I just saw Mario Chalmers on campus wearing socks and flip-flops.
Hey, Julie Obormy, it probably wouldn't work out for the girl to hold the guy. Use a little common sense.
+
Julie Obnoy, thanks for making sure that picture got in there a second time.
So today was every other Wednesday, and there wasn't a hot dog cart on Wescoe Beach. Words do not describe my frustration.
I just saw my girlfriend for the first time since the start of the year, and I'm happy to report that she's gained 15 pounds.
It's nice to know that Travis Robinet is openly trying to put a jinx on Scott Webb. Thanks a lot, Travis.
I want everyone who has a problem with Frank Tankard to line up in front of my door and present your right cheek, 'cause it's going to get the heck smacked out of it!
News is supposed to be fair and balanced, until the UDK realizes this, I'm changing the name to The University Daily Doesn't Agree With Me On This particular Day or issue.
My comment is that I'm tired of the Rhombus House comments in the Free For All, and this is one of them, so this better not get in there.
If you don't move your purse from the only empty seat on the bus, then I reserve the right to stand over you and look down your shirt.
Rhombus House drinks Smirnoff Join Tappa Kappa Kegga if you're a real man.
Remember when words like tubular and cowabunga were radical?
Screw chicks, I just want to dance!
Who is Bill Braskey and why does everyone keep talking about him all the time?
Okay, UDK, I've had about enough about it. This is the fourth day in a row that I've seen an article on the opinion page written by a frat guy about how frats aren't that bad. When did they become journalists?
TALK TO US
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Elli Ford, Yanting Wang, Joel Simone, Dan Helli, Annie W郁温, Juleis Peral, Nathan McGinnis, Josh Goeting, Sara Garlick, Travis Brown, Julian Portillo, David Ackermann
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If Mr. Martin seeks to join and or create an anti-war movement, he will be sorely disappointed by the KU Young Democrats and Delta Force alike. In five years at the University, I have only seen the "activism" of Delta Force or the KU Democrats during election season.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Want change? Take it to the streets
With the firestorm of rhetoric and the enigmatic smiles of politicians it is easy to mistake electioneering for activism, but we must make this mistake no more.
The average politician or young party member seeks not to change the world but to place himself in a position of power. The Democrats lost an election by running a "peace" candidate that criticized the way Republicans ran the war.
Do we really expect Democrats to end a war when their rallying cry is "We would like the opportunity to do this differently?"
Writing to a Congressman will not end a war. It will merely ensure you a typed letter of thanks and a continuation of policy. The only way to end a war is to pour into the streets and end it with a public outcry so great the powerful have no choice but to listen.
Kim Coughlin
Lawrence senior
Yes, cast off your apathy, but send not your letters. Organize your communities. That is where the power of the people lies.