Girl finds missing dog's head in box on doorstep

[Jinsei]

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- A 17-year-old girl who spent weeks looking for her missing dog unwrapped a box left on her doorstep and found the pet's severed head inside, authorities said.

Homicide investigators were looking into the case because of the "implied" terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said. The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

"This was extraordinarily heinous," said Dale Bartlett, the Humane Society's deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. "I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it took my breath away. It's horrible."

After Crystal Brown's 4-year-old Australian shepherd mix,Chevy, wandered away last month, she put up "missing" posters in her neighborhood and went door to door looking for him. She called the St. Paul animal shelter and rode the bus there several times.

"I felt empty," Crystal told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "I couldn't talk to anyone. He was my dog. It was just me and him. ... I told him everything and he never shared any of my secrets."

Two weeks ago, a gift-wrapped box was left at the house Crystal shares with her grandmother. The box had batteries on top, and a note that said "Congratulations Crystal. This side up. Batteries included."

Crystal opened the box and found her dog's head inside. The box also contained Valentine's Day candy.

Crystal screamed when she saw her dog's face.

"She was just hysterical," said Crystal's grandmother, Shirley Brown. "She was screaming. She said, 'Grandma, it's my dog's head!'

"I said, 'no it can't be!"'

Authorities say the case is an isolated incident and the suspect likely knew the family. A motive is unclear.

"This was so cruel," Crystal said. "This is one sick, twisted person."

She now has a new puppy, another Australian shepherd. She's named it Diesel. "Hopefully, he'll be my best friend," Crystal said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Adona Mara]

It's almost too horrific to be true.

But what's worse, is that there's someone who probably thought this was funny.

[Jinsei]

Oh, I'm sure whoever did it thought it was hilarious and were likely around to see her reaction when she opened the box.

[Icarus]

*hands the duct tape and hammer to Jinsei*

Your turn.

[Theta Sigma]

Is it just me, or does there seem to be an increase in psycopathic whack-jobs lately?

Best of luck, Diesel!

[Jinsei]

I believe the reason for it is that parents no longer disipline children due to the laws regarding them. So, doctors drug the children to get them to behave and as those children are becoming adults, they stop taking the meds and are incapable of living in any decent form of society. They no longer have the ability to discern right and wrong, so they give into all of their impulses and aren't able to understand that there are consequences for actions, as their whole lives doing something wrong has just meant a modification to their meds.

[Theta Sigma]

admin said:

I believe the reason for it is that parents no longer disipline children due to the laws regarding them. So, doctors drug the children to get them to behave and as those children are becoming adults, they stop taking the meds and are incapable of living in any decent form of society. They no longer have the ability to discern right and wrong, so they give into all of their impulses and aren't able to understand that there are consequences for actions, as their whole lives doing something wrong has just meant a modification to their meds.

Excellent point, Myrrden! Especially when even our food and drinking water is pharmaceutically modified.

[Icarus]

I believe that this has less to do with parents being afraid of laws on discipline than it does with parents just being lazy and not bothering to raise a child properly. You know.... like teach them right from wrong. Of course, the occasional beatings help too.

[Adona Mara]

Somewhere, on some distant world, we're being observed by students as a demonstration on "How to create a sociopathic society." And the entire class is uttering a simultaneous "Ew. That's twisted."

[tomw2005]

I feel an SW quote coming on:

"Wait a minute how did this happen? We're smarter than this."

"Apparently not."

Tom W

[Jinsei]

Really, I wonder how we got to the point that the government or a doctor can say, "Your child needs to be medicated, because he has ADHD (gets bored easily)." and the parents say, "Ok, if you think that's what's best for my child, I agree."

I take my kids to the doctor for their check-ups and get their medicines when they get sick. By sick, I'm talking about ear infections, stomach virii, etc. When we're at the doctor, I question him about nearly everything, because in the end they are my children and I'm their parent, that makes me responsible for them. What kind of parent simply sits there and lets their children be medicated for something as simple as boredom? If your kids are bored, then it's something that you can do something about. Contrary to popular belief, children are supposed to be full of energy and need to expend that energy somehow. Sitting in a chair for six hours a day in school isn't the most productive way to burn it off, so yeah, they get bored.

I believe that part of the problem is that people have grown used to being told, "The government knows what's best for us." Really, when did the government become qualified to know what was best for us?

[Theta Sigma]

admin said:

I believe that part of the problem is that people have grown used to being told, "The government knows what's best for us." Really, when did the government become qualified to know what was best for us?

For sure, the aptly termed "nanny state." What I can't understand is why anyone would trust any government considering their abysmal performance in practically every facet of governance? Perhaps they are creating a global community of 'sheeple' who find it easier to be told what to think, rather than to use their brains for themselves. Of course, stressing the 'fear factor' is always guaranteed to shepherd the herd!

[Jinsei]

Perhaps they are creating a global community of 'sheeple' who find it easier to be told what to think, rather than to use their brains for themselves.

Sheep in a flock are easier to control than we donkey's who stand out from the crowd.

[Theta Sigma]

admin said:

Sheep in a flock are easier to control than we donkey's who stand out from the crowd.

Touchè, Myrrden! (And it's better being a donkey than an ass, eh? )

Here's a relevant tale related by George Gurdjieff in P. D. Ouspensky's book, In Search Of The Miraculous:

There was an evil magician. He lived deep in the mountains and the forests, and he had thousands of sheep. But the problem was that the sheep were afraid of the magician because every day the sheep were seeing that one of them was being killed for his breakfast, another was being killed for his lunch. So they ran away from the magician's ranch and it was a difficult job to find them in the vast forest. Being a magician, he used magic.

He hypnotized all the sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it.

He then told different sheep...to some, "You are a man, you need not be afraid. It is only the sheep who are going to be killed and eaten, not you. You are a man just like I am." Some other sheep were told, "You are a lion -- only sheep are afraid. They escape, they are cowards. You are a lion; you would prefer to die than to run away. You don't belong to these sheep. So when they are killed it is not your problem. They are meant to be killed, but you are the most loved of my friends in this forest." In this way, he told every sheep different stories, and from the second day, the sheep stopped running away from the house.

They still saw other sheep being killed, butchered, but it was not their concern. Somebody was a lion, somebody was a tiger, somebody was a man, somebody was a magician and so forth. Nobody was a sheep except the one who was being killed. This way, without keeping servants, he managed thousands of sheep. They would go into the forest for their food, for their water, and they would come back home, believing always one thing: "It is some sheep who is going to be killed, not you. You don't belong to the sheep. You are a lion -- respected, honored, a friend of the great magician." The magician's problems were solved and the sheep never ran away again.

Or as don Juan describes our situation in The Active Side of Infinity (by Carlos Castaneda):

"We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so.
[…]
"They took over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. Just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops. Therefore, their food is always available to them.
[...]
" I want to appeal to your analytical mind. Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradiction between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behavior. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of beliefs, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal.

"In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous maneuver stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous maneuver from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now.
[...]
"Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear.
[...]
"The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were quite ill at ease with the idea of when it made its appearance on Earth. They reasoned that man must have been a complete being at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated man.

"What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat. There are no more dreams for man but the dreams of an animal who is being raised to become a piece of meat: trite, conventional, imbecilic."