Sick a**hole of the week award goes to Steven Butcher of Reseda, CA - and his stupid *ss girlfriend

[Liberal_in_LA]

Animal cruelty crackdown in Los Angeles has results

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cruelty8-2009feb08,0,7249180.story

Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

People involved in dogfighting, cockfighting and other abuse are targeted by groups from the LAPD and district attorney. The number of criminal cases filed has jumped.

By Jack Leonard
February 8, 2009

Furious that his girlfriend had broken up with him and stopped taking his calls, Steven Butcher decided to take his anger out on the couple's small puppy.

"Every time you . . . don't pick up the phone, I am beating the dog," Butcher said in an angry voice-mail message he left for his ex-girlfriend. In a later message, as the dog yelped and cried in the background, he said: "You got some more of the dog getting beat."

When police officers arrived at Butcher's Reseda home, they found Nelia, the pit bull puppy, shivering in a sink with cold water running over her. The animal's jaw had been broken, her eye sockets had been fractured and several of her ribs had been cracked.

Butcher, 23, was charged and convicted last year of animal cruelty -- one of a growing number of serious animal abuse cases in Los Angeles, where police and prosecutors say they are taking crimes against animals more seriously than ever.

------------------

In the case of Nelia, the beaten puppy, police said her owner also threatened to kill his girlfriend during some of his phone calls. He was sentenced last year to 270 days in jail for animal cruelty, placed on five years' probation and ordered to undergo counseling. The puppy survived and was adopted out when authorities suspected that Butcher's ex-girlfriend might reconcile with him, police said.

:mad:

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. .

:grr:

[LiberalFighter]

2. Under those circumstances he should had gotten 10 years. IMO.

And identified as a child molester in prison.

[izquierdista]

7. Liberal??

I guess you're one of those liberals who opposes capital punishment unless it happens by accident behind prison walls. Had he committed some other crime as a result of his pent-up anger, would you be pleading to cut him some slack? Don't bother to answer, I'll just :puke: in your general direction.

[Richardo]

9. I'm a liberal and I would have shot the fucker myself.

[LiberalFighter]

12. If I had a gun might be inclined to shoot the sob too

but it wouldn't fit the tit for tat. Even the state doesn't execute unless there was a killing that I know. Next best thing is let nature take its course in prison.

For sure the measly 20 months or so was not enough.

[petronius]

20. Isn't it more like 9 months (270 days)? With no guarantee that he'll

serve the whole time. The counselling is probably the best part of the sentence, but I doubt it'll help. I'm surprised there wasn't a charge related to the threats as well.

Still, it's good that LAPD is making this a focus...

[LiberalFighter]

13. If he had killed the dog I would had been for capital punishment by the state.

Sounds to me you would lose control every time and shoot anyone that pissed you off.

[jerryster]

3. Ahole is right

I was hoping that your post would ultimately say that he was bluffing and not really hurting the dog. But this creep really was. Big man, isn't he? However, I was also disturbed by the last part of your post. She may RECONCILE with this lowlife? She needs to heed that old advice: When you are being physically abused by your partner, run as if your life depends on it. BECAUSE IT DOES.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. I'm sure she's going to see lots of feedback on the web about this story. Maybe it will wise her up

[Snotcicles]

4. What a sick and dangerous BASTARD. nt

[Submariner]

6. This is one of those aholes that will get early release in 10 days or so

due to jail/prison overcrowding to make room for the next murderer.

[GReedDiamond]

17. Or, more likely, to make room for...

...the next pot smoker.

[BlueIris]

8. SICKSICKSICK. Why can't someone like that be locked up for life?

That story is one of the most horrifying things I have ever read.

[flvegan]

10. He should never be allowed to have another animal again.

I hate when the DA doesn't request that to be part of the sentence. It's the first thing orgs like us here in Florida request when something like this happens. We know the accused will get a shit sentence, and they should at least be kept incapable of ever doing this again.

[TWiley]

11. DO WHAT I SAY OR THE BUNNY GETS IT

Lock em up dano!

[ddeclue]

16. Would you settle for a kitten???

[cherish44]

14. Big man, you've overpowered a small animal!

Honestly, it must suck to have penis the size of a macaroni noodle.

[ddeclue]

15. WTF is it with women who keep going back to these abusive bastards?

I've never had luck w/ women... my theory is because I'm too busy being a "nice guy" to them.

Yet abused women keep going back to assholes like this...

:crazy:

[kdmorris]

18. Sometimes they have no choice

It's not like there's a whole lot of support for women in abusive relationships (though it's better than it was 20 years ago).

I went back to my abusive ex-husband about 10 times before I was finally able to get out permanently. Each time I went back to him because he took my child, because I was 8 months pregnant and put on bed rest, because he wouldn't pay child support and I couldn't feed them, because my 2 weeks at the homeless shelter were up, etc. I went back the first time because he had gone through Rehab and seemed like he had really changed.

I'm sure to you, these sounds like stupid excuses, but until you've actually be running away from an abusive husband with 3 babies (5, 2 and 1) in tow, I don't think you can appreciate how desperate life is for a woman in that situation and how scared you are, all the time.

That being said, the article states that the police suspected she might go back, not that she did.

(Disclaimer: I finally got away from my abusive ex-husband almost 17 years ago, through sheer luck and the support of my family. It was at that point that Maryland actually gave women a restraining order for more than 10 days and I was able to get custody of the children and the house for 6 months. They didn't do much to keep him away from me, but at least I could get the police to go get my children if he tried to keep them. I married a man who would never touch me in anger 12 years ago (he's a "nice guy"), who adopted my daughters as his own. No one in my family has had contact with my ex-husband in 14 years).

[TWiley]

21. huh?

so, you finally escaped your own stupidity?

I have a friend in the same situation. She thinks she is a "good mom" by staying with him. I told her she was the shittiest example of a mom because she was teaching her children how it was appropriate to treat their mother.

She got pissed at me and has not spoken to me since.

Years later, a broken jaw, and two concusions later, she is still with him teaching her children how lousy women cope with life.
Oh, she still says she is a "good mom" too.

[kdmorris]

22. I didn't say I was a good mom when I stayed with him

But when he took my children and I wasn't with them, what do you think he would do to THEM? He said come back or I would never see them again. So, I went back. And planned my next escape, which took two years and another baby to feed. Who are YOU to judge how shitty a mother someone is because of decisions they are making?

Yes, it's a vicious circle and your friend is not doing her children any favors. But, rather than addressing what she was saying (Why does she think she's a good mom by staying with him?), you insulted her and treated her pretty much the same way her asshole husband is. Do you seriously think that calling her names will help her see that there's a different world out there?

I got out of my situation for my children. By the time I left, I didn't feel I had any worth as a human being. I loved my daughters though and when they started exhibiting the same behaviors I did (appeasement, etc), I knew I had to go. I still took my months to get out of there, since he wouldn't let me ever leave the house with all three of my children. And a lawyer I had spoken to told me that, if I left even one of them behind, he would get custody of all of them.

Instead of acting like you know everything and treating this woman like a "lousy woman", perhaps you could try to understand WHY she is really staying there and what you could do to help her get out of the situation. (One wonders how exactly you know she still claims to be a good mom if she hasn't spoken to you in years). Does she have any self-esteem left? Why does she not leave after a broken jaw? Has she tried to leave and failed because of something that is more important than a broken jaw? Does she feel like she deserves it, since all of her "friends" thinks she's a lousy woman and the shittiest mother ever?

[JI7]

23. did you even read her post ? she didn't claim she was being a "good mom"

by staying with him. she said she didn't have many other options. she tried to get away by doing things like staying at a shelter but there are time limits on that. and her husband would take the kids so she couldn't just get away without leaving them behind.

she was finally able to make it later.

the woman you are mentioning is not like the person you are replying to. the person you are replying to knew she was in a bad situation and WAS trying to get out and was not making excuses for the abusive husband's behavior as with the woman you speak of.

[Berry Cool]

19. Good Lord.

And we call dogs "animals."

It should be a term of honor, compared to how some alleged humans behave.