And she won’t lose her parental rights either
I am certain some of you will disagree with me, but I don’t think this woman should even be permitted around children, much less left with custody of one.
Linda D. and Loretta are guilty for tipping me to this one as well, however there’s not a thing funny about it.
A Georgia woman is in jail after police say she forced her son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer as punishment for bad grades.
The sheriff of rural Meriwether County told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday that the 12-year-old boy told his teacher about the killing. The teacher reported it to the Division of Family and Child Services, who contacted police.
Sheriff Steve Whitlock said 38-year-old Lynn Middlebrooks Geter of Warm Springs faces one charge each of animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery.
I simply cannot fathom how she thought this was an acceptable punishment. I don’t know why they don’t toss child abuse in there as well because this has got to be psychological abuse. “Cruelty” just isn’t strong enough.
Her son is apt to be screwed up for life after this.
January 26th, 2010 at 11:13
Also, the question is…if this is what she did to him at age 12, what other torture has she put this child through?
January 27th, 2010 at 03:46
What would you want them to do to her? It’s a HAMSTER, not something with feelings or comprehension. Your average rodent is one step up from an earthworm when it comes to sentience. Why do you think they use rodents in lab testing? Because they have no feelings and they’re too stupid to even understand when they’re being hurt. You talk about how people should be saving your anger for things that are important, perhaps you should listen to your own advice, huh?
LInda D. she didn’t torture him! The only one that could have been tortured was the hamster and it was killed with a hammer blow. One blow would be fatal so even it wouldn’t have been subjected to “torture.” If this had been a dog or a cat, that could have comprehended what was happening, I might be a little upset but it was just a hamster. Please, as I told the blogger, save your wrath for subjects deserving of it.
January 27th, 2010 at 08:35
You’re missing the point, GT. It’s not so much the hamster itself (though that is a factor), it’s the effect this incident had on her child. Forcing someone to kill another living creature (especially in the manner she did) can be considered psychological torture. It certainly caused undue emotional distress to the kid, didn’t it?
As for the remarks about the hamster, I’ll leave those for Kate and her family, as they adore hamsters.
January 28th, 2010 at 00:05
First: Hamsters most certainly DO have feelings. If you doubt it, go spend some time with one and see. Speaking as someone who owns multiple hamsters and gerbils, I can tell you that they are also intelligent and have a phenomenal memory as well as the ability to figure things out (like how to open their cages, etc.).
They use rodents in lab settings because they multiply quickly, they’re small and easy to care for, they inbreed so they have very few genetic differences (it is important to know that you are seeing an effect or reaction due to your experiment not due to the mouse’s genetics), and finally, they are closely related in their genome/anatomy/biology to humans (homology).
However, even more important than the hamster is what she did to her child. She made her child take a hammer and kill a creature that he had loved and cared for, a creature that trusted him. The damage done to her child may even be irreparable. And why? Because he got bad grades. That bad grade will be forgotten in a year or two. How long will it take him to get over seeing his poor hamster die — at his hands — over and over and over again in his mind’s eye?
And Christ, if this was the bad grade penalty, just imagine what the punishment might have been if he’d flunked a grade? Is the family dog next? Or maybe his baby sister?