Recent news reports from New Zealand told of kittens repeatedly thrown into a swimming pool by children in one city and of others tormented by human youngsters in a provincial town. Such behavior makes me very concerned about the psyches of the children. Why do they have so little respect for vulnerable kittens?

Often I’ve bicycled past a dog, one who enjoyed the sunshine by basking in a shop doorway. Noticing a deformity, a large hump on the animal’s head, I initially suspected a tumor. One day I spotted a terrible head-wound, so I stopped and asked the owner what’d happened. Some boys had bashed the dog with a large piece of wood, breaking open the skull.

The owner took the poor dog to an animal hospital where the wound was treated and dressed. The dog showed amazing docility, given the nature of the injuries.

Each day, I stopped on my way past and talked to the dog and to the owner who took good care of his pet. Then the dog no longer occupied the usual spot, and I learned that the poor beast had died as a victim of mindless violence.

Mankind’s future looks suspect when young people engage in such horrendous cruelties.

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