Jesus wept (don’t read this if you’re squeamish).

From today’s Evening Times:

A thug who stamped a 15-week-old pup to death has been jailed for four months.

Thomas Kennedy, 23, launched the brutal attack in a fit of rage after an argument with his mother.

After the pup died from horrific internal injuries, Kennedy hid its body under his bed.

…The killing of the mongrel pup is the latest in a number of cases of shocking animal cruelty reported to inspectors.

A Banff teenager who hacked off the ears of his two puppies with a pair of scissors, without anaesthetic, was yesterday fined £300 and banned from keeping dogs.

And earlier this year thugs killed a Coatbridge family’s pup by impaling it on a mop handle. Inspectors from the SSPCA described the gruesome killing, involving a “very high level of violence” as one of the most disturbing attacks they had ever encountered.

I’m not one of those people who worries about ickle puppies while not giving a toss about the loss of human life or someone who believes animals are little angels with fur and paws (there’s a local Jack Russell I’d cheerfully kick into orbit, given half the chance), but as Squander Two and I have discussed endlessly, people who do this kind of thing to animals are seriously disturbed and in my opinion, downright dangerous. Animal torture is one of the “homicidal triad”, the three childhood behaviours that can predict murderous behaviour in adults (the other two are pyromania and post-adolescent bed-wetting, in case you’re interested).