Abuse of children, animals

It irks me to no end when I hear of and see reports of a child and children who have been abused. The same is true with the abuse of animals whether it be a household pet or a farm animal.

To me there is absolutely no excuse for abusing child or a pet. It seems that too frequently we see or hear of media reports of both.

Unfortunately, I’ve had to write stories about both in recent weeks.

My wife Pat and I talk about it all the time. How can people abuse, in some cases violently abuse, especially their children and do such harm to them?

It’s just hard to imagine why people want to abuse their children or children of others. And what about their pets? We continued to see more and more of that going on as well.

I will say and commend local law enforcement and prosecutors who are adamant about not tolerating such behavior. So are judges and people who sit on juries who must decide if people are innocent or guilty if the evidence is strong enough.

AChandler man was convicted earlier this year by a Lincoln County jury of four sex crimes against a minor. The jury recommended 2 life terms and two more terms of not less than 25 years each. At sentencing, the judge followed all of the jury’s recommendations.

Also, in an animal cruelty case filed last year, a mother and her of age daughter were charged with nearly 50 counts each of abusing and neglecting horses, cows, sheep, goats and dogs.

A Rescue was called and was able to save practically all of those animals.

The two women recently took a plea bargain deal. The judge handed them appropriate sentences each and you can bet, even through they are not in prison, they’ll most likely think twice before abusing animals again, even if they have access to them.

I recently did some checking of local court records since frequently I write about court cases. Keep in mind the instances I have mentioned thus far deal with cases which were actually filed either in 2023 or before and the disposition of them has taken place in 2024.

But since Jan. 1, 2024, in Lincoln County alone, there have been at least nine cases involving either child neglect, child abuse or lewd or indecent acts to a child under the age of 16.

That doesn’t include of at least a couple of other animal cruelty cases as well.

Now understand these are cases where charges have been filed. The defendants haven’t been found guilty of anything. These people will have their day in court.

Some people may say, well, that isn’t very many.

Personally, I think it’s too many. It remains a mystery to me how people can even think of doing this to their kids or animals.