I have a hard time finding compassion for those who torture innocent creatures.
Skeptilius wrote:I have a cat. I love my cat - he's my little buddy. If someone did this to my cat I believe I would kill him. Since animals don't have rights in our culture, I would no doubt go to prison. So be it.
Animals have varying rights, which are less than the rights of humans. If you stop feeding your cat, then you can be found guilty of animal cruelty. However, if you do not feed deer that decided to make your land their main habitat, I don't know of a court that would find you guilty of animal cruelty.
Seen legally, pets are basically property that benefit from a few additional right that insentient property does not benefit from. So in those places and circumstances where deadly force is justified for the protection of property, you'd be justified in protecting your cat. Otherwise, you would not.
And if your ethics tell you that you are justified while the law does not, well, that's where ethics and the law part ways. What is legal is not necessarily ethical and what is ethical is not necessarily legal. You can bet that if I found someone harming my cats, my reaction would be the same as if I found someone harming my human loved ones.