05/29/02 Cruelties of High-Graduates
Animal Friends publicly protests against high school graduates' cruelty to animals
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES INDULGING IN TORTURE OF ANIMALS
Singer Andja Maric fought with high school graduates to save the tortured hen, while in Split the graduates cut a tied dog with knives!
The happening that marks the end of the school year for high school graduates, the so called "Norijada," should be a celebration of young people leaving school and getting ready to grab life by the horns.
Their joy is perfectly understandable, but some things - violence, fighting, damaging tram cars and destruction of city property - are neither understandable nor acceptable. Some are even unforgivable - like cruelty to animals.
This year Animal Friends got several reports on high school graduates torturing animals. Although there were similar cases in previous years, this year's acts of violence were so shocking that some measures simply have to be taken against unrestrained graduates.
One of the performers at the happening at the lake Jarun in Zagreb was the singer (and declared friend of animals) Andja Maric, but for her it was far from fun.
During her performance, a group of graduates threw a hen on the stage. The hen had obviously had most of its feathers plucked, it had been sprayed with automobile paint, force fed with beer and half-drowned in the lake. The poor animal could barely stand on its feet and was shaking with shock caused by such mistreatment.
Backed up by one of the security guards, Andja did something very courageous: she grabbed the hen, left the stage and managed to run away - despite the threats from the high-school graduates; she took the animal to her home, but the tortured hen - who was beyond help - died a painful death.
One has to wonder what was going through the minds of those students while they were torturing the innocent creature. Are those the people that will one day be somebody's parents, co-workers, colleagues, neighbors, friends?
We got the information that the hen had been bought prior to the "celebration" specifically for that purpose - as an object of torture. When she took the hen away from them, the graduates threatened Andja Maric because they "had paid 70 kuna for it and it was theirs."
It is not known which school those students are graduating from, but the teachers and all those who had a role in their "education" should ask themselves what they've been teaching them for the past four years and how is it possible for such dysfunctional behaviour to develop and go unnoticed by those closest to them - especially their parents.
In Split, the abominable act of several high school graduates shocked the whole city. According to the report we got, during the celebration a group of students went to the nearby cemetery where they tied up a dog and proceeded to cut the animal with knives.
Try to imagine the fear and the pain the dog felt. It is indescribable.
What made those young people commit such a hideous act? What else are they capable of?
What kind of a sick mind comes up with such form of "entertainment?"
Many scientific studies show the connection between violence against animals and violence against humans. As kids, all mass murderers used to torture animals.
Children growing up in a healthy, nurturing and emotionally stable environment never inflict pain on animals or other people.
In the past few days there have been many discussions about pre-high school graduation celebration, or rather about the resulting damages to the city property and the consequences for some participants and bystanders. One has to ask: where is it all going? Is throwing flour at by passers or bathing in the fountains no longer enough?
Does even such a supposedly joyful event have to be an "opportunity" to torture animals?
Animal Friends asks the class teachers and principals of the schools involved to contact the authorities and to take appropriate measures against the students who committed the acts described above.
We believe the hen tortured at Jarun must have been brought to the school prior to the students departing, so it should be possible to find out which school it was, because somebody has to have seen the animal. We appeal to the teachers and students who witnessed the brutal act to come forth.
BLOOD, OSTRICH & TEARS
by Predrag Lucic
On Saturday, a massacred body of a German shepherd was found near the Split cemetery Lovrinac. The dog's hind legs were tied to two pine trees, at the height of about 5 feet above ground, and his body hung butchered.
The president of the Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals sent a public protest in which she accused the unrestrained high school graduates for torturing the dog.
Some sources claim the dog was run over by a bus. Several times, it seems.
Those sources do not offer any explanation as to who tied the dog to the trees - the bus driver or the passengers?
On Sunday, a diver from Rijeka jumped into the sea right in front of the Vrbnik harbour and at the depth of 45 feet came across a dog's body. The animal had a huge stone tied to its neck. The diver was so appalled by what he saw that he took a photograph of it and then sent it to the newspapers. The editor of the graphic department was so taken aback and perplexed by
the horrid photo of the poor animal, already partly eaten by fish, that in the end it got published upside down, with the sea floor at the top of the picture.
That same day, the ostrich farm near Djakovo by-pass got two unexpected visitors who beat one of the female ostriches to death with a spade and then used the shards of a broken bottle to cut off its leg. They were caught just because the brother of one of the perpetrators reported them to the police, upon his brother1s triumphant return home with an ostrich leg under his arm.
So why then am I spoiling everybodys day specifying all those atrocities? Because the majority of the esteemed citizens of this country are not feeling their legs tied to the tree trunks, or stone blocks tied to the chains around their necks and are not missing a leg that some jerk is carrying under his arm...