I have been focusing on another horrible animal cruelty case today. Stanley Kubrick used to say that "man is still in the process of becoming civilized." Sorry Stanley ... man isn't even close yet...See my letter and related AP wire story below... Also Mno Haya Lita Iz!!
3 January 2005
Cumberland County Prosecutor
Juvenile Unit
ATTN: Sarabeth Abrams
43 Fayette Street
Bridgeton, New Jersey 08302
Fax: 856-451-1468
Phone: 856-453-4666 or 856-453-4667
I am writing in reference to the two 13-year-old step-sisters charged with stomping, suffocating a kitten in Commercial Township, N.J on December 5, 2004. I read of this story on the AP newswire today and must say I was horrified and disgusted to read about this incident. Even more disturbing is the boasting of this animal cruelty by the two girls. I urge you as prosecutor to charge these two for every possible act of cruelty. Each act should be a separate charge and there should be a 4th degree for the torture (stomping) and a 3rd degree for death (burying alive, which killed the kitten). I also urge you not to agree to a continuance and urge you to seek the maximum penalty, including detention. Finally, I kindly ask for an order prohibiting the juveniles from caring for or having animals in the future. Animal cruelty carries mandatory counseling for juveniles. We need to educate these children immediately that what they did was horribly wrong and they need to be sternly disciplined.
Thanks you for your attention!
Sincerely,
Professor Albert G. Nigrin
Girls charged with stomping, suffocating kitten
December 30, 2004, 2:32 PM EST
COMMERCIAL TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Two 13-year-old girls have been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly stomping on a kitten and then burying it up to its neck, killing the animal.
The girls, who are stepsisters, took two 8-month-old kittens that had been offered for adoption, faking a permission slip from their father, said Beverly Greco, Cumberland County agent for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When the girls' father said they could not keep the kittens, they stomped on one of the animals and then buried it in a wooded area, Greco said. The other escaped after the alleged attack Dec. 5.
The kitten that was killed was found with a red tank top tied around its neck; a veterinarian determined it probably died because of the pressure of the dirt packed around it, Greco said.
The girls have not been identified because of their ages. They each were charged Wednesday with three counts of animal cruelty and a disorderly persons offense.
The buried kitten, with its head above ground, was discovered by the son of its original owner. The girls bragged in school about what they had done, Greco said.
I notice I have been using the word "hell" a lot in my recent writing... Is ths perhaps a subliminal message come to the fore??
For those of you interested I will be showing The Furies -- one of my recent films -- at the NJ Historical Society in Newark, NJ on January 26th at Noon...I'll have more info on this next time and it will also be screened in China at Creek Art Center, (Shanghai, China). Thanks to Thom (QIN DAO) For more info go to http://www.creekart.cn/eng/1/1/fuxiang.htm
Experimental Films
Exhibition Title: Floating Images
Organizer: Creek Art Center, (Shanghai, China)
Production: Dao Chang Productions (Guangzhou, China)
Production Manager: Xiao Fei
Curator: Qin Dao
Artists: Michael Brynntrup (Germany), Dimitry Lurie (Russia), Albert G. Nigrin (US)
1. Michael Brynntrup
Sudden and Unexpected
2002, 16mm, black & white, Sound, 29min
2. Albert G. Nigrin
The Furies
1997, 16mm, black & white, Sound, 26min
3. Dimitry Lurie
The Aftertaste
2000. 35mm. black & white, Sound, 15min
Artists’ Introduction
Michael Brynntrup
Born in 1959 in Munster, Germany. Studied Law, Philosophy and Art History (1977-1987) in Munster, Freiburg, Rome and Berlin. Attended film and video classes of Birgit Hein and Gerhard Buettenbender between 1987 and 1991 while studying art at the Braunshweig School of Art. Brynntrup was awarded his Masters Degree in 1991. Since 1977, he has been active in experimental poetry, painting, photography and reproductions. He started experimental writing in 1979, and in 1980, began working on installations, performance art, and curating art events. From 1981 till now, he has produced over 60 experimental short films and videos, as well as 3 feature films. He showed in film exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1987, 1992 and 1999), and many solo retrospective shows in different film festivals. Besides winning numerous film awards, he also organized several main film events, including the Third Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (2001).
<>Albert G. Nigrin
Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened on all five continents. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc. -- a non-profit organization which screens and promotes independent, experimental and artistic cinema in New Jersey via the New Jersey Film Festivals, and the United States Super 8mm Film + DigitalVideo Festival. The famous experimental film critic Steve Anker stated in the catalogue of experimental film exhibition “Big as Life”(1998-2000, Museum of Modern Art New York), that Nigrin’s 8mm films occupy a prominent place in US film-making.
Dimitry Lurie
A young independent filmmaker, Lurie currently lives in Norway and is active in Scandinavia.
In any case wishing you bloggers and blog readers out there a wonderful 2005.. can it be any worse than 2004?
Well it looks like Yushchenko and his team in Ukraine have overturned the fraud-laden Presidential election run-off in November. Now only one hurdle left to covercome and that is the impending Supreme Court appeal..this time by Yanukovich..He will not win this either! At least Ukraine's Presidential election turned out ok... unfortunately, in the USA, we will be stuck with the right-wing ideologue (that is giving him to much) or the emperor with no clothes/prose GW Bush for another 4 years..if the country survives his injustices that long...
Our hearts, here in the Nigrin-Fizer household, go out to the millions of people impacted by the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami... perhaps the human race can finally band together in a common purpose and help one an other in times of trouble.
On a more regional note our local newspaper the Central NJ Home News and Tribune listed the cancellation of the Bear Hunt as one of the top 10 bad things that happened in the state during 2004. They called the bear hunt protesters zealots? What a bunch of hypocritical idiots... On one page of the paper they do the humane thing and try to get people to adopt stray animals ...on the other they ask for bears to be slaughtered for no good reason.
May they rot in hell!!
