Alpaca's savage beating in Ohio upsets ranchers

By LISA CORNWELL, Associated Press Writer Lisa Cornwell, Associated Press Writer – 35 mins ago

CINCINNATI – Almost as comforting as the soft sweaters made from alpaca fleece is the affection that the llama-like animals from South America bestow on their owners. Jeff Pergram's alpaca, named Masterpiece, would trail and nuzzle him.

So it was heartbreaking not only to Pergram, but also to owners throughout the state known as "Little Peru" for its thriving alpaca industry, when Masterpiece was stolen, beaten to death with a makeshift club and dumped in a barn.

"I can't imagine anyone looking into the gentle eyes of an alpaca and doing such a thing," said Beth Kressin, an alpaca owner in Medina, in northeast Ohio.

Two 17-year-old boys are charged in juvenile court with animal cruelty and other counts, and a 23-year-old woman is charged with complicity offenses. A judge has ruled that one of the teens should be tried as an adult, and a hearing on the other teen's status is scheduled Thursday.

There doesn't appear to be a broader trend of attackers taking advantage of alpacas' trusting nature, but the Ohio attack has rippled through the national network of alpaca ranchers even though most believe their pastures are well-fortified.

"This was tragic, but I think it is an isolated case," said Jerry Miller, spokesman for the national Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. Still, "it might make some owners keep an extra eye open."

The attack is still discussed at alpaca shows, and owners and others have registered their distress on websites such as a "Justice for Masterpiece" Facebook page, which has drawn thousands of comments.

Smaller but similar in appearance to llamas and to camels without the humps, the long-necked alpacas are prized for their fleece, which is made into sweaters, socks, rugs, blankets, even teddy bears. They are raised also for breeding and show.

The fiber varies in price according to market demand and use. It can bring $2 or more an ounce in the raw state, with finished products sometimes costing more than $1,000.

Prices of the animals vary according to fleece, heritage and breeding characteristics. Some lower-quality alpacas sell for $250 to $300, while others sell for thousands of dollars, said Jeff Bradford, president of the Ohio Alpaca Breeders Association. One sold at auction this year for $675,000, he said.

Ohio leads the country in registered alpacas with 25,000. More than 150,000 alpacas are registered in the United States, according to the national association, based in Nashville, Tenn.

Typical security measures to protect alpacas from the likes of coyotes, dogs or mountain lions include 5-foot, no-climb fences and guardian animals such as livestock dogs, llamas, or donkeys, Miller said.

Masterpiece's owner did not have a high fence or animals to protect the few alpacas at his Butler County farm about 40 miles north of Cincinnati. Pergram has sold his other three alpacas partly because of the January attack.

Masterpiece, worth $8,000, was part of his livelihood but also a gentle and lovable pet, said Pergram, who has received hundreds of sympathetic cards and e-mails.

There have been media reports through the years of humans needlessly killing farm animals, including horses, cows, llamas, sheep and goats. Animal welfare groups such as the Humane Society of the United States don't track such slayings and believe they are less common than those involving dogs and cats.

Someone killed Tana Ward's 5-day-old alpaca, Arianne, in 2007.

"I came home one day from work to find her in the pasture, decapitated," said Ward, who owns an alpaca farm in Walworth County, Wis., about 45 miles southwest of Milwaukee. "We think it was kids, but there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges."

She now has dogs for protection and empathized with Pergram through the Facebook page.

"My heart broke when I read about the loss of Masterpiece," she wrote. "Condolences and hugs to his family."

Debbie Zulli, an alpaca owner in York Springs, Pa., said she believes her alpacas are adequately protected by the larger llamas and a high fence.

"But if someone wants to do something like this," she said, "they will probably find a way."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100513/...alpaca_slaying


RIP, Masterpiece!!
Wait for your family at the Rainbow Bridge!!!

I hope these little POS rot in Hell for what they did to this poor sweet animal!!!

I hope they look into the parents of these kids too.

For sure!!!

The damned families should be court-ordered into therapy, too!!

The Triad of Violent Serial Criminality-as it's called.

"What Makes Serial Killers Tick?
By Shirley Lynn Scott

The Triad

Animal Cruelty

These secret compulsions are seen as the seeds to greater mayhem. "Violent acts are reinforced, since the murderers either are able to express rage without experiencing negative consequences or are impervious to any prohibitions against these actions. Second, impulsive and erratic behavior discourages friendships," increasing isolation." "Furthermore, there is no challenge to the offenders' beliefs that they are entitled to act the way they do." (Ressler, et al, Sexual Homicide) "All learning, according to Ressler, has a "feedback system." Torturing animals and setting fires will eventually escalate to crimes against fellow human beings, if the pattern is not somehow broken.

Torturing animals is a disturbing red flag. Animals are often seen as "practice" for killing humans. Ed Kemper buried the family cat alive, dug it up, and cut off its head. Dahmer was notorious for his animal cruelty, cutting off dogs heads and placing them on a stick behind his house. Yet not all serial killers take their aggressions out on pets. Dennis Nilsen loved animals, particularly his dog Bleep, whom he couldn't bear to face after being arrested for fear that it would traumatize the dog. Rapist torturer and murderer of eight, Christopher Wilder, had made donations to Save The Whales and the Seal Rescue Fund.

Pyromania

Peter Kurten loved to watch houses burn, and Berkowitz, when he tired of torturing his mother's parakeet, became a prolific pyromaniac, keeping record of his 1,411 fires. "Oh, what ecstasy," said Joseph Kallinger to his biographer Flora Schreiber, "setting fires brings to my body! What power I feel at the thought of fire! ... Oh, what pleasure, what heavenly pleasure!" Pyromania is often a sexually stimulating activity for these killers. The dramatic destruction of property feeds the same perverse need to destroy another human. Because serial killers don't see other humans as more than objects, the leap between setting fires and killing people is easy to make.

Bed Wetting

Bed wetting is the most intimate of these "triad" symptoms, and is less likely to be willfully divulged. By some estimates, 60% of multiple murderers wet their beds past adolescence. Kenneth Bianchi apparently spent many a night marinating in urine-soaked sheets.

Conclusion

Formative years may play a role in the molding of a serial killer, but they cannot be the sole reason in every case. Many killers blame their families for their behavior, seeking sympathy. In true psychopathic fashion, serial killers are blaming someone else for their actions. If their bad childhood is the primary reason for their homicidal tendencies, then why don't their siblings also become serial killers? And if these conditions truly created them, serial killers would probably be unionized by now, there would be so many of them (a sad commentary on our continuing neglect of children.) We must look at other components to see what pushes a serial killer over the edge."


http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/s...s/tick/5b.html


"Mary Bell
By Shirley Lynn Scott

Psychological Portrait

"Manipulation of people is [her] primary aim"

-- Dr. Westbury after examining young Mary

At her trial, a psychiatrist who had examined Mary testified that she exhibited the classic symptoms of psychopathology (or sociopathology) by her lack of feeling toward others. "She showed no remorse whatsoever, no tears and no anxiety. She was completely unemotional about the whole affair and merely resentful at her detention," reported Dr. Orton. "I could see no real criminal motivation."

Marys abusive mother, her genetic wild-card of a father, and physical damage likely incurred by the repetitive drug overdoses all contributed to her sociopathology. Her inability to bond with others in a loving manner was twisted into a bonding process based on violent aggression. Mary responded to others based on how she herself had been treated. When a mother is a source of fear for a child, some cope by developing protective mechanisms against the outside world, which, for the developing sociopath, is a constant threat. Of course, not all children raised in abusive situations become sociopaths. Genetic factors and neurological damage also play a role. If a child is subjected to all of these conditions, the forecast can be deadly.

She certainly showed no signs of being satiated after murdering Brian. She was violent toward animals, a chronic bed wetter until her adult years, and while she hadnt set fires, she did destroy property in her brief career as a murderer. Those familiar with these "triad" of symptoms that characterize serial killers will also recognize that she probably wouldnt have stopped killing if unapprehended. Mary preyed on victims weaker than herself, and after the murders interjected herself into the crime investigation.

"Living in a fantasy world" is fine for children, but for psychologically disturbed violent offenders, the phrase rings ominous. Mary and Norma fantasized about being criminals and escaping to Scotland. "We built it up and up until -- it now seems -- We kept hoping wed be arrested and sent away," she said. "We never talked about anything except doing terrible things and being taken away."

Medical experts do not believe that sociopaths can be "cured." They are generally resistant to therapy, which Mary had proven to be throughout her incarceration. Some do speculate that aggressive tendencies quiet down with age. Perhaps Mary is better. We cannot know for sure."


http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/n...rtrait_12.html


What Makes Serial Killers Tick?
By Shirley Lynn Scott

Monsters or Victims? What They Are and Who They Kill

"It was an urge. ... A strong urge, and the longer I let it go the stronger it got, to where I was taking risks to go out and kill people — risks that normally, according to my little rules of operation, I wouldn't take because they could lead to arrest."

— Edmund Kemper

Where does this urge come from, and why is so powerful? If we all experienced this urge, would we be able to resist?

Is it genetic, hormonal, biological, or cultural conditioning? Do serial killers have any control over their desires? We all experience rage and inappropriate sexual instincts, yet we have some sort of internal cage that keeps our inner monsters locked up. Call it morality or social programming; these internal blockades have long since been trampled down in the psychopathic killer. Not only have they let loose the monster within, they are virtual slaves to its beastly appetites. What sets them apart?

Serial killers have tested out a number of excuses for their behavior. Henry Lee Lucas blamed his upbringing; others like Jeffrey Dahmer say that they were born with a "part" of them missing. Ted Bundy claimed pornography made him do it. Herbert Mullin, Santa Cruz killer of thirteen, blamed the voices in his head that told him it was time to "sing the die song." The ruthless Carl Panzram swore that prison turned him into a monster, while Bobby Joe Long said a motorcycle accident made him hypersexual and eventually a serial lust killer. The most psychopathic, like John Wayne Gacy, turned the blame around and boasted that the victims deserved to die.

They must be insane — what normal person could slaughter another human, for the sheer pleasure of it? Yet the most chilling fact about serial killers is that they are rational and calculating. As the "British Jeffrey Dahmer" Dennis Nilsen put it, "a mind can be evil without being abnormal."

Before we look at who they are, we must first describe what they are. The FBI defines serial murder as:

* A minimum of three to four victims, with a "cooling off" period in between;
* The killer is usually a stranger to the victim — the murders appear unconnected or random;
* The murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim;
* The murder is rarely "for profit"; the motive is psychological, not material;
* The victim may have "symbolic" value for the killer; method of killing may reveal this meaning;
* Killers often choose victims who are vulnerable (prostitutes, runaways, etc.)

Statistically, the average serial killer is a white male from a lower-to-middle-class background, usually in his twenties or thirties. Many were physically or emotionally abused by parents. Some were adopted. As children, fledgling serial killers often set fires, torture animals, and wet their beds (these red-flag behaviors are known as the "triad" of symptoms.) Brain injuries are common. Some are very intelligent and have shown great promise as successful professionals. They are also fascinated with the police and authority in general. They have either attempted to become police themselves but were rejected, worked as security guards, or served in the military. Many, including John Gacy, the Hillside Stranglers, andTed Bundy, have disguised themselves as law enforcement officials to gain access to their victims.


http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/s...victims_1.html


Aside from the harm they do to innocent, helpless animals, do we really need these freaks moving up the food chain to killing humans?

NO-add strength to animal cruelty laws, and we protect ALL life!!

Do you realize that in many states, if someone harms or kills a therapy animal (guide animal/helper animal) or a canine law enforcement officer (drug dogs, etc.) in the commission of a crime, they face the SAME penalty as injuring or killing a HUMAN BEING or HUMAN LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER??

Shouldn't ALL animals have that same protection?

I think so...