A 12 year old boy has been charged with first degree burglary and animal torture in Clinton. This according to a story from Local 4 News. The police investigation found that the boy committed a theft from a trailered boat and when confronted by the boat's owner the boy threatened him with a knife. That's not the most sickening part of the story though. Police found the boy tortured the boat owner's cat. Specifically he cut and burned the cat, who later died from its injuries at a local veterinary hospital.

Society needs to be protected from this boy. In my opinion he deserves to be locked up or placed in some sort of psychiatric facility. When you don't possess the conscience to not harm a defenseless animal, that's a huge red flag for me. It's nowhere near a youthful indiscretion. I believe it's a warning to society that this person needs help and we should be very careful before chalking this person's behavior up to youthfulness. I certainly hope police and the local prosecutor pursue the animal torture charges with as much zeal as they do the burglary charges.

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