25 Years to Life For Killing A Dog

Here’s a case where Prosecutors really pushed to make this dog killing the “third strike” for 48-year-old Alex Castro. With 20 misdemeanors and two felony convictions for violence on his record, the Judge said he simply could not ignore the violence that Castro has exhibited. Castro thought he would receive no more than the three-year maximum sentence for taking a hammer to his former girlfriend’s 10-year-old cocker spaniel, Copper.  He could not believe his 25 Years to Life sentence for “only killing a dog.”

His ex-girlfriend, Joanie Gonzalez, sounded like she had picked up a good bit of information about animal abusers when she responded with, “”I really didn’t think that Life was the right sentence for killing an animal, but as someone said, who knows it could [be] a child the next time.” Castro will be eligible for parole in 33 years.

Just think…if these kinds of sentences were handed down as a matter of course for felony animal abuse, how fast would the scourge of dog fighting disappear?  Not to mention the human toll to communities with the gangs, drugs, and emotional damage inflicted on children who live with this savagery like it was something normal.  Imagine all the pain and violence that would just stop.  I know, I know…but a girl can dream, can’t she?

Read Linda Goldston‘s article here.