One of my greatest fears has always been that I would find myself in a situation where someone had done something like that to one of my pets. The fear is from the fact that I know I would do something far more illegal in extracting my own revenge/punishment.

If I knew the identity of the person who had killed/tortured one of my animal pals, then I would likely spend the rest of my life in state prison after doing something on par to that person.

Not too many years ago, two juveniles broke into a local house and killed half a dozen cats with baseball bats and their bare hands. Their punishment in criminal court was hampered by the fact that cats are viewed as property of surprisingly little value ($8 or 10 per cat, I forget). The court was hard pressed to find them guilty of misdemeanor vandalism. If I had been the owner of those cats, I would have dedicated the rest of my life to re-creating their suffering on those boys.

This has been among my nightmares ever since.

D