Life in Moonbat Land

This is a hard one to call but that has never stopped me before: I used to live in Seattle for over 20 years and Jen and I lived there for a few years until we found the place where we are now. I had lived in a number of different places and liked Seattle the best -- a good mix of tolerance and resources. From The Seattle Times comes this story of what happens when nanny-state thinking gets carried to an extreme:

Judge awards $45,480 in cat's death
Paula Roemer knows most people don't understand her passion for animals.

Some of her North Seattle neighbors aren't thrilled about the crows she attracts to her back yard with bird seed, she says. When she rescued a scraggly kitten abandoned on a pathway while she was vacationing in Israel 13 years ago, people reacted with disdain.

So when a neighbor's dog mauled and killed that same beloved cat, Yofi, last year, Roemer barely mentioned it to people she knew. But now she feels that she found one person who understood: a judge.

Last week, Seattle District Court Judge Barbara Linde ordered the dog's owner to pay $45,480.12 to Roemer for the cat's death.

And the defendant:

The defendant in the cat case, Wallace Gray, pleaded guilty to an animal-control violation last October in Seattle Municipal Court. Court documents say he admitted that his dog killed a neighbor's cat in February 2004 "due in part to my negligence."

Gray said he just learned of the financial judgment yesterday from a reporter. "This is way out of hand. This is absolutely crazy," he said.

Gray said he had already served 21 days in jail and three months under house arrest for the animal-control violation. He wasn't living in the house with his dog at the time of the attack, he said, and the acquaintance who was taking care of his dog left town before the trial.

"I'm sorry she lost her cat, but I had no control over it," Gray said.

I emphasized three items -- Gray has already spent 21 days in jail for the death of a cat, Gray was not living in the house at the time of the attack and the person who was responsible for the care of the dog at the time of the attack was not present at the trial -- out of town. Let me start out by saying that Jen and I are both very much into animals. We have three dogs, two cats, two goats (with a third coming tomorrow), two sheep (and planning to breed our Ewe), ten ducks and a large collection of Chickens and Guinea Hens due to arrive at the end of this month. Two years ago, we lost a cat (Mistletoe) in an attack from a dog that we had adopted four months previously (Maddie -- a German Shepard who is now living on five glorious cat-free acres with two people who cherish her.) I am saddened by this unnecessary death of a beloved critter at the hands of a neighbors dog but Paula -- get a frickin grip on reality here... These are critters just like you and me and accidents do happen. The award that you received and the onus and penalty that you placed onto Wallace Gray was much more than would be with a case of negligent homicide. That judgment will follow Wallace Gray throughout the rest of his life unless he is able to spend the money to get it stricken from his record. I am not denying that this person had an attachment to this cat that far outstrips any attachment she has with civilization. What gets my goat is that this sort of mind-set is common in Seattle and becoming more and more common in Moonbat land. The idea that the state provides everything and that if someone hurts you, you run to the state and the state makes everything better. Sure, the state taxes you but it also feeds you and gives everyone a good life. Last time I heard a whopper like that it was called Communism and it only killed One Hundred Million People. Its kid brother Socialism has a wonderful track record too.