A former US Marine accused of wringing a kitten’s neck received 30 days in jail from a civil circuit judge:

Circuit Judge Thomas Forehand…found Angelo Michael Stango, 27, guilty Friday of misdemeanor animal cruelty and sentenced him to a year with 11 months suspended.

Violence against the cute and cuddly is punishable (though, oddly enough, there was apparently no body to prove the cat was actually dead).  There will certainly be some who claim the former Marine Sergeant should have received a harsher punishment.

As an interesting comparison, the US military has apparently chosen not to charge US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan with killing the unborn child of one of his (alleged) victims, US Army Pvt Francheska Velez.  Stango’s kitten killing was tried in civil court — notably, there is no UCMJ article specifically addressing animal cruelty.

There is a UCMJ article specifically addressing killing an unborn child:  Read more