Trek-Segafredo rider shoots and kills innocent cat

No, I’m not saying what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

I’m not making this personal because it gets ugly very quickly, I’m not judging but rather trying to provoke thought.

Killing a deer is deemed acceptable to swathes of ‘western’ society, a sport. But certain creatures which could reasonably be considered of equal sentience to a deer, e.g. dogs/cats are not acceptable to hunt. Why is that? In some countries (domestic) dogs run wild and cause havoc, would the same people who think deer hunting is acceptable feel the same way about hunting the dogs for food or sport?

Again I’m not casting aspersions, open candour.

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So, he was just trying to injure/torture the cat? Much better.

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No idea what he was thinking. I hope it was not his goal hurt the cat.

Pointing a loaded weapon at a living creature tends to do that.

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Good thing none of us died playing bbgun wars when we were young.

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:thinking:

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Learning occurred

Shooting at it means hurting it was his goal. You don’t shoot a living creature without wanting to hurt/kill it.

As to why you’d only want to hurt it I’ll abstain from casting aspersions on him.

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As a former cat momma (RIP Shasta, you fluffy psycopath), I’m just stuck on the term “innocent cat” :rofl: :rofl:

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I 100% agree with a gun is only used for deadly force.

But if no one teaches you that you won’t know it. It’s in instructions that you can kill something. Doesn’t mean you read that.

If you don’t know shooting is going to hurt/damage/kill then you shouldn’t have a weapon and tbh you’re probably in need of a responsible carer for your, and other’s, safety. This isn’t being disparaging towards anyone needing carer but I feel that an adult (and teenagers) will have learnt this from media in all forms that guns kill/hurt/maim.

You can’t abdicate your responsibility because no one told me.

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Yeah, I’m find this line of thinking kind of hilariously bizarre. Tiberi is, presumably, a fully-functioning adult in society with a family, relationships with, again presumably, a lifetime of exposure to culture and education.

The idea that he’s some babe in the woods who was never taught right or wrong, or what danger means, is so much more insulting than him just being an idiot who made an incredibly stupid decision.

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I’m not saying his whole life should be over for this, but there’s zero justification for shooting the cat and TBH I don’t believe his excuse that he didn’t think it would kill/hurt the cat.

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I’m just trying to find more details from Italian news. From what I read it wasn’t really an accident. He was on his balcony shooting around. Before killing the cat he was shooting road signs…

That’s from the police, you can google translate it:
" “posizionandosi con la carabina ad aria compressa del tipo Hatsan BT65 SB Elite in prossimità della finestra dell’appartamento in cui risiede a San Marino… l’imputato esplodeva colpi in direzione via Istriani, colpendo intenzionalmente al cranio un gatto che ivi transitava

If you are defending this guy’s “mistake” of killing a cat instead of only hurting it like he intended…

How do you feel about drivers that only intend to “scare” or “teach a cyclist a lesson” but injure or kill them by mistake?

I appreciate the heartfelt apology and remorse, except for calling it an accident. It’s a shame but also the shame is that he did it. It’s great that he no longer thinks shooting cats for fun is a good idea, but I don’t know many balanced people that ever think shooting cats for fun would be a good idea.

I don’t think his life should be over, but I’d expect harsher consequences for sure.

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I hope the owners of the cat are sufficiently compensated for their loss. I don’t know how I feel about his ongoing employment. Regarding “innocent cats,” I am reminded of a recent NYT article about Australia’s government sponsored cat-hunting scene (I’m not going to link it… it might be behind a paywall… and if you can access it, or a similar article, I warn diehard cat lovers that the pictures might be hard to forget). Cats are pests.

Yes, I own a cat. I am also a vegetarian. YMMV.

The issue is not the cat’s life is worth more than a cow’s life or a bird’s life. The issue is that he killed the neighbor’s cat for fun. It’s a crime against his neighbor and his community.

Immediately, we wonder what kind of person would do this. Was it done in a cruel and sadistic way?

Maybe it truely was an accident? Maybe he was fooling around and only meant to scare the cat and not actually hit it? We don’t know the details and will never know.

Let’s face it, these elite athletes have lived in a bubble their whole life. They often aren’t the smartest of the bunch or the best educated.

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In Australia, common house cats who are either stray or left to roam are causing native species extinction. Their ecosystem has no natural predators for many European-introduced species which creates ecological havoc. I am not saying this justifies the cat violence, just an explanation. There are better ways.

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There was nothing accidental about it, He intentionally shot the cat. What do you think happens when you shoot a small, defenseless and domesticated animal in the head with a pellet gun? He should lose his contract with Trek, and be beaten over the head with the damn pellet gun.