Which is more valuable, the life of a cat or the life of a human being?
In the very sublime kind of insanity known only to occur in American courtrooms, the killing of cats seems to merit harsher punishment than the killing of a child.
Wisconsin Circuit Judge Richard Werner sentenced Barry Herbeck to 12 years in prison for beating five cats to death. The sentence was three times as long as prosecutors requested. Herbeck told investigators that he killed the cats to relieve anger built up from being abused as a child. 200 animal rights activists present at the trial cheered the sentence.
Latrena Pixley committed a much lesser crime than killing an animal. In 1992 Pixley smothered her six week-old daughter to death. A judge in the District of Columbia gave Pixley a suspended sentence and placed her on probation. Pixley would not have served any time at all for the infanticide except for the fact that she later committed credit-card fraud, violating the terms of her probation. In effect, she served no time for murder but did serve some time for the credit-card offense.
Despite the fact that Pixley admitted killing her daughter and dumping the body in the trash, she recently won custody of another one of her children. The two year-old boy, one of four children Pixley had by the age of 23, will be turned over to the child-killer on September first. A Maryland police officer had been taking care of the boy, and filed to adopt him. Officer Laura Blankman argued, not unreasonably, that a mother who kills one child is unfit to raise others. The court disagreed, arguing that two year-old Cornilous was best off living with the person who had killer his sister.
Like Pixley, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson committed infanticide. Unlike Pixley, they will serve some time for their crime, although not nearly so long as cat-killer Herbeck. The young unmarried couple beat their baby to death and dumped the body in a motel dumpster. Delaware Superior Court Judge Henry duPont Ridgely sentenced mother Grossberg to two and a half years in prison. The father, Peterson, was sentenced to two years.
In a recent Outrage we told you the story of Susan Cummings, the heiress who shot her lover to death in cold blood. Since her lover, Argentinean polo player Roberto Villegas, was neither a cat nor a kid, Cummings was slapped on the wrist. She was sentenced to sixty days in the county jail, and fined $2,500. She was recently released from jail after serving 51 days; she got nine days off for “good behavior”. (Apparently she didn’t kill any cats while serving time.)
Let’s see;
– One of Latrena Pixley’s daughters is dead; Pixley is at liberty and is about to get custody of her son.
– The child of Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson is dead; they’ll each serve a couple years in prison.
– Susan Cummings’ lover is dead; Cummings is free and rich.
Three cases, three brutal murders of human beings. Combined sentence: about four and half years.
On the other hand, five cats are dead; Barry Herbeck will serve twelve years in prison.
While I don’t approve of the light sentences of the persons guilty of murder, I was rather appaled that one would imply that killing cats does not warrent a 12 year sentence. All of the victims in these stories, save the polo player, were defenseless. Just as a young child is no match for an adult neither is a cat or any animal for that matter. The man who beat the cats to death should have had to suffer the same fate, and had I been there when he was sentenced, I would have cheered too. As for the murders of children – that is the sole fault of a legal system that doesn’t know when to do the right thing. Murder is murder and no one should get away with it no matter who the victim is.
Time: 8/4/98 (14:4:14)
Time: 8/1/98 (13:33:9)
Time: 7/22/98 (13:3:21)
Time: 7/20/98 (17:44:12)
Time: 7/20/98 (8:14:21)
Time: 7/20/98 (1:44:18)
Time: 7/19/98 (11:14:58)
Time: 7/19/98 (11:13:40)
Time: 7/18/98 (19:48:11)
Time: 7/18/98 (19:48:3)
I just wanted to add this for the persons here who feel that animals have no rights or are not worthy of protection. Karma works in mysterious ways and that which we do not protect may be our downfall. And btw Homer, I hope that the next cat you kill has an owner that will bash your sick head into a wall. Honestly, you are a very very sick individual and I hope that your Karma cycles ASAP so that you may suffer as you have made those defenseless cats suffer. Be a man and post your address and phone number if you are going to boast to such a cowardly and sick act.
One of these days justice will be served. These people comitting these crimes will be answerable to God, as we all will. They’re not going to get off scott free, although they may for the meantime.
I think it’s terrible that babies and small children are killed. Although, I studied the Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson case and if you read the court documents you will see that it was NEVER proven that the infant was beaten. He had skull fractures but medical examiners were UNABLE to determine the cause since the baby was dumped in a dumpster, aomething could have been thrown on him while he layed there. I am not defending Grossberg or Peterson I agree they should have both received a longer prison sentence because what they did was wrong. But… I think posting lies on the internet is wrong also. Try getting your facts straight before causing “outrage” over court cases.
I know you think the sentence that Barry Herbeck recieved was a stiff one and that people who kill toher humans dont get as much. However inthe case of Herbeck, I was the Father of the chld he mollested back in 1988 he walked with a slap on the wrist for that did alot of damge to a 6yr old and I was very upset that he did not get a stifer sentence for that. Now at least he is behind bars and can’t hurt any one for the time being. But what happens when her get out. He is in a prison in Whitehall Tn. he wil be there for at least another 2yrs and if I have anything to do with it he will stay untill his sentence is served comp.
Police were first called to the home of Barry Herbeck on April 9, 1997 when a former live-in girlfriend told police she found cat entrails in the garbage disposer while cleaning the house and trying to unclog the garbage disposal unit. She told police she remembered coming home about a month prior to that and finding a dead cat in the hallway, and also recalled the man’s 8-year-old daughter saying that he had killed the family puppy.
Herbeck allegedly wrapped duct-tape around the mouth and nose of the 8 month old puppy, Nikko, and sealed the puppy in a small plastic container until it starved to death. The rotting corpse of an 8-month-old female German Shepherd was found stuffed in a container on Herbeck’s porch.
The body of Nellie, a female black cat, was found in Herbeck’s home. An autopy examination showed clear evidence that Nellie had been sodomized; both of her back legs and neck had been broken, and she had massive abdominal injury.
Herbeck told police he took in numerous cats and had been killing them since at least January of 1997. He claimed that killing the cats helped him cope with stress and anger he experienced from past abuse he was subjected to as a child. Herbeck reportedly told police that he killed the animals to release pent up anger he suffered from being subjected to physical abuse by his step father and a sexual assault by a neighbor.
Court records showed Herbeck had a first-degree sexual assault conviction from January 1989. He was found guilty of First Degree Sexual Assault for performing oral sex on a 6 year old girl.
He confessed to killing Monkey, Harley, Morris and Butterball by punching them, twisting their necks around, or throwing them against the wall until they died. Their poor little tortured bodies were discovered with their necks, jaws and other bones broken. He said he felt better after he killed the animals, and the more animals he killed the greater his relief. He also told police he felt guilty for killing the animals.
According to police reports, Herbeck said that after he killed the cats he had in his house, he would answer ads in newspapers for free cats.
Local residents told police Herbeck answered their newspaper ads for “kittens free to a good home”.
Herbeck reportedly took his children along with him to answer ads for free animals. One Janesville woman told police that Herbeck took two adult orange tabbies and one gray and white tabby on April 3, 1997 in response to her ad for free kittens. He initially took the three adult cats and then later also agreed to take a mother cat and three kittens. He brought his children along on both visits, she told police.
Three adult cats were found with their necks twisted in trash containers outside Herbeck’s home on April 9, 1997, the day of his arrest.
An Edgerton woman also called police after seeing Herbeck’s picture in the paper and said he came to her house in April with his daughter and son, at around the same time that he took the other cats. The woman told police that Herbeck offered to take the cats she was advertising as ‘free to a good home’, but the cats had already been promised to someone else.
The woman said he called her about one week later, and tried to talk her to into giving him her Dalmation, telling her that his daughter had fallen in love with the dog.
The woman told police she was reporting these incidents to them because she wanted them to know that Herbeck had used his children to get animals.
A Janesville man called police after seeing Herbeck’s picture in the local paper. He had also given his cat to Herbeck, who responded to an ad for a cat free to a good home.
The man said Herbeck brought his children along with him at the time, and he thought it was very unusual that the kids didn’t show any excitement about getting a new cat.
The man told police he later figured that the kids showed no excitement because they probably knew what was going to happen to the cat.
Several other dogs may have fallen victim to Herbeck’s perversion. A six year-old Shepard Husky, Ginger, disappeared into Herbeck’s home. The collar and leash of a Chocolate Lab was found in Herbeck’s home, but the dog has never been seen again. Herbeck also admitted putting other dogs in the same container where Nikko was imprisoned, starved and left to die.
Amy Williams, former owner of Nikko, the German Shepherd puppy horribly killed by suffocation and starvation, described for the press how Herbeck had talked her into letting him have Nikko, after previously adopting Harley and Smoke, two of her cats.
“He came over to my house and talked about what a great home he would give my two cats. He took Smoke and Harley. He then called several times and said he and his girlfriend would just love to have Nikko. I finally gave in and let him have Nikko.” Ms. Williams said.
Ms. Williams said she and her fiance had to find homes for their pets when they had to move in with her parents who already had pets of their own.
“It was the hardest thing I had to do – give them away. I will never, ever get over this. I still wake up crying,” she said.
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Rock County Humane Society official Cheryl Silha reviewed veterinarian reports on the dead animals and said the animals had been tortured. “This wasn’t a ‘throw against the wall once’ situation. This was over and over. These animals were tortured and they died a slow death,” Silha said.
Silha said the five dead cats found at Herbeck’s home were taken from one person. “We know he went through a steady supply of animals. How many, we won’t really know, since he said he was putting them in the dumpster where he worked.”
It has been estimated that Herbeck may have killed as many as 20 cats.
Herbeck’s trial was scheduled for May 13, 1998 but he entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor, supposedly meant to spare his two young children the trauma of testifying at his trial.
Herbeck pleaded ‘no contest’ May 5, 1998 to five felony counts of animal abuse resulting in death, and one felony count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Previous to his Tuesday May 5th hearing, he had also been charged with one count of obtaining sexual gratification from an animal, and the death of Nikko, the 8 month old German Shepherd puppy. He also had admitted to police that he committed “an act of sexual gratification involving his sex organ and the anus of a black cat”, after he killed the cat, around Valentine’s Day of 1997.
The felony charge for killing the German shepherd puppy was dismissed by prosecutor Scott Dirks after Herbeck’s defense attorney, Todd Daniel, filed a motion to have the charge dismissed because the dog’s carcass was destroyed. The misdemeanor charge of bestiality was also dismissed as part of the plea bargain agreement because a white substance found on Nellie’s body could not be identified as Herbeck’s semen, though prosecutor Scott Dirks felt the charge could have been proven in court.
Herbeck had admitted these crimes and others in statements to police.
Scott Dirks, assistant district attorney, told the court he would recommend a four year prison sentence and an additional six years probation. Animal welfare groups and many people who learned of this atrocity thru internet sources feared that Herbeck may have gotten off on nothing but probation!
Judge Richard Werner was not bound by the plea agreement and had many options in sentencing, from probation to maximum prison sentence.
Barry Herbeck faced sentencing July 6, 1998 in a Rock County Circuit Court, on five felony counts of animal abuse that resulted in death, and one felony count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
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Reports of abuse witnessed by his 8 year old child
Herbeck’s 8 year old daughter told police her father became angry after the puppy urinated on the living room floor, and that she watched as her father taped the puppy’s mouth shut and stuffed it into the container. She said he told her not to let the puppy out, and not to feed the puppy, even though the puppy was crying and whining.
She told police that about a week afterwards her father moved the container out onto the porch. She also said she saw him throw at least one cat against the wall so hard that it died, and she saw another cat lying dead in the bathtub after it had bitten her father. She also saw a large heavy box in the freezer, which she suspected was yet another dead cat. It was.
This 8 year old child also showed police a large piece of carpet over other carpeting at the bottom of the stairs in the home. She told police the carpeting was used to cover blood stains caused by her father throwing animals at the walls and down the stairs.
The child was 8 years old at the time of these incidents. She will most likely bear the emotional scars of witnessing these horrors for the rest of her life.
Herbeck was ordered to have no contact with his then 8 year-old daughter, 10 year-old son, his ex-wife, or his former live-in girlfriend.
When Herbeck was arrested in April of 1997, he had custody of his children, despite his earlier conviction for sexually abusing a 6 year-old child!
Herbeck has a long criminal history beginning in 1982, including complaints and charges of physical and sexual abuse of children, and the physical assault of several adults. Many times the charges were dropped! We begin to wonder what does it take for people to recognize serious and classic warning signs of dangerous individuals?
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Revised: May 26, 1999
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You folks who made light of the animal killings seem like fools after reading the entire story about Barry Herbeck. So, you’d like this man coaching your daughter’s soccer team? Are you in the habit of defending depravity?
The first thing I’d like to set straight is about the Grossberg-Peterson baby. He was not beaten to death. It was suspected he was beaten by prosecutors because of certain Skull fractures, but there are experts in the field arguing on both sides. Some say this was the cause of death…some say it happened after the baby was dead. Many things happened to that baby, in my opinion he didn’t come out healthy in the first place because of Amy Grossberg’s illness and a combination of lack of oxygen and coldness were the reason for his death. But I’m no expert.
The second thing, is that Judges are finally cracking down on animal cruelty because its a fact that the majority of seriel killers in jail, started out as Animal Abusers. If a person is willing to “take out his anger” on 5 cats, what kind of conscience does he have? What would stop him from taking his anger out on his own children, the child down the street, etc? Animal abusers are just plain crazy.
Crazier than those who could kill a child or another human? Depends on the crime and the person committing it. I do think the people you mentioned should have had stiffer sentences. (In the Grossberg-Peterson case, the only one I’m familiar with, they should have gotten 4 years each at very least.)
Please do not compare the horrible crimes against children to those committed against animals! The animal-human abuse link is well established! It is grotesquely wrong that killers of children receive lighter sentences than that of Barry Herbeck, but that does not make Herback’s sentence excessive. He is also a known abuser of children! We must stop all abuse, torture, and murder of the helpless and voiceless.
Please people! Yes Herbeck was a screwed up individual, but 12 years for stupid cats? I hope that wasn’t the only basis that the judge was making the decision on. People in this forum who think it is just that we parcel out 12 year sentences for killing cats are crazy. Murder is murder, that is bunk! People are predators, that is a fact, we have a killing instinct like any other animal, we just suppress it. You eat meat, you are a murderer by that logic. Besides it is all arbitrary anyway! What if we had decided way back when to make cats our food animal? No one bitches about killing cows or pigs, or getting thrown in jail for 12 years for willful and maliciously killing chickens. You would get a fine and that is it. In India the cow is sacred, other countries have temples that worship rats and bats. So I say eiher consistently apply the laws across the board or stop altogether with the biased sentencing. The entire reason why killing of a human is such a crime is that people understand the finality of death and experience the terror and grief that comes with the knowing. Animals do not understand, thus cannot be affected to the same degree as us. This sentencing comes from our emotion and our outrage about what we “perceive” the cats felt, but in reality the cats don’t have an opinion, individually or en masse. So wake up people, care about your cats, protect your cats, but keep it in perspective. Not everyone shares your view of the sacredness or the inherent “rights” cats have. Cats only have a right to what they can defend, as any species has.
I have one question for Steve ‘bastion65@hotmail.com’: would you ever allow someone who sexually abused and tortured animals around your own children?? You justify an act of cruelty by saying that we all ‘eat meat’. Truly incredible. Please make note: I am not a cat lover. I do not believe in any sort of ‘sacredness of cats’. I do not own a cat nor wish to! However, any intelligent rational person can make the connection – a man who tortures and sodomizes an animal IS LIKELY TO DO THE SAME THING TO A CHILD. How can you not see that??? Anyone who commits infanticide should receive the harshest penalty and it is an absolute outrage and a shame that in this instance, it was not so. However, you should never trivialize animal cruelty, which often precedes cruelty to women and children.
Un-fu@king-beleivable. Add into the bargain that cats are sadistic, evil killers and you have one sick society…on ya americans!! no other country in the world could have citizens who are so patriotic about a country that allows this kind of travesty of justice…I admire your forbearance.
sorry – I admit it – the last comment I made was without reading all the facts – guess I look pretty stupid, huh? The guy got what he deservred, although – I’m not sure the killers’ of their own children did….
You stated, “Cats only have a right to what they can defend, as any species has.”
Humans are a species. According to your logic, if an elderly, sick, smaller, etc., human cannot defend his/her body, then a bigger, healthier, stronger, etc., person has the right to take it?
You’re so transparent. How dare you use stories of murder to disguise a rant against animal rights activists.
The *truth* is, people who are involved in causes like animal rights, and environmental issues are usually also involved in political, and human rights organizations. Compassion doesn’t stop at one cause.
Yes, the cat killer got what he deserved. The murderers obviously didn’t. The cat killer case isn’t to blame for the other stories of injustice. Humans aren’t suffering injustice because animals are *sometimes* treated with respect. What a leap!
If you feel so strongly about this issue, then get out there and break a sweat with the activists rather than criticizing those who are accomplishing something.
It would have taken you all of five minutes of research prior to your rant to discover the fact that animal abusers are likely to become human abusers. You should be thanking the AR groups for helping keep potential murderers off the street.
I am an animal rights activist. I’m also an environmentalist, and human rights activist. I’m not new to people hearing of something I’d done within the first two causes then commenting with something like, “Why don’t you help people?”
Why do people make that assumption so often? Because it’s what they want to believe. It eases their own guilt of not being more socially active. It’s easier to just write a small charitable check every now and then than getting off the sofa and really working for a cause. It’s easier to pretend that AR and Env. organizations are a waste of time than admitting the truth. The truth is too revealing of the nay sayer.
Educate yourself about activist groups. It’s far more productive than blind ranting.
So your saying the guy that killed the cats should get off easier just because someone that killed a kid did? thats just as stupid as what you are complaning about.
I’m 13 and studying this is english i believe that all animals and all humans are equal, well should be anyway,i think you people are an OUTRAGE because anything that is living surely deserves a bit of freedom, doesn’t it?
fuk y’all w*****s
Saddend to hear about the killed cats.. That man that done the crimes should have been killed the same way..
On Nov.6,1999 My husband (X today) Killed our family pet. Foxy Lady,15lb.Pomeranian and placed her in the freezer. He beat her 60 times with our 3 yr.old son’s medal bat.. The X claimed the dog was attaching him.. That day I was sent off across town to fix a tire on his truck and when I came home the dog was killed infront of my son,placed in the freezer.. I know it was all preplaned.. After 2 days of delebration the x got off free with a 6 man jury cause no witnesses except for our 3 yr.old . I was outraged.. He done this in front of our son and that should have been enough… I am still not over it.. I have moved to Tennessee and got full custody of our now 8 year old.. He is doing great in school and a honor roll for the last 3 years.. My x was controlling to me and I couldn’t do anything right.. I hope to help others get out of abrused situations. All abrused start with animals then to humans..What is wrong with our Judge??? Thx for Listening.