Heartless kitten kicker arrested after punting cat in Brooklyn

NYC Crime

SEE IT: Helpless stray cat goes flying after being kicked by heartless creep in Brooklyn

Andre Robinson, 21, is seen laughing as he lures the unsuspecting kitty toward him before he kicks it with full force, sending it flying 20 feet through the air. Video of the vicious May 2 act was posted on Facebook and circulated for several days before cops arrested Robinson on Monday. He has eight prior arrests, including one for knifepoint robbery.

BY JOSEPH STEPANSKY , ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , MARK MORALES , GINGER ADAMS OTIS

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Monday, May 5, 2014, 5:41 PM

Updated: Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 12:45 PM

A cat-kicking creep was busted by cops Monday after he was caught on video heartlessly booting a trusting stray — sending the animal spinning through the air before it landed behind a bush some 20 feet away.

Andre Robinson, 21, lured the cat closer to him by holding his hand out, like he wanted to feed the feline. But then he attacked it as an NFL placekicker does a ball — and celebrated as if he had made a game-winning kick. The video shows him bouncing gleefully from foot to foot in a depraved parody of an athlete’s victory dance.

With shouts of laughter from his posse, Robinson, sporting flashy red-and-white sneakers, a gray baseball cap and red sweatshirt, broke into a twisted, open-mouthed grin.

_____
Editor’s Note:
His stomach-turning display of cruelty included him waving his hands in the air as he swaggered for the camera, cackling madly while holding what appeared to be a cigarette in his left hand.

Video of the vicious attack on Friday was posted on Facebook and circulated for days before police saw it Monday, identified the location in Bedford-Stuyvesant and then Robinson himself, and tracked him down.

His mother—predictably— said: “He had to be high on something. It’s very out of his character.”

Dozens of people had written angry comments on Facebook and shared the video online in hopes someone would recognize the sicko. “This is NEVER okay to do. Please share; hopefully somebody will recognize this fool,” wrote one disgusted Facebook commenter.

An online petition included more than 2,000 signatures.

Following his arrest, Robinson’s mother, Mary Kirby, 48, defended her son and tried to explain away his actions. “He had to be high on something. It’s very out of his character,” she told the Daily News. “He had to be high to do what he did. This isn’t him.

“He loves animals. He loved his cats, he had dogs, he always loved them,” Kirby added.

NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi

KEN MURRAY/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Accused cat-kicker Andre Robinson, 21, was taken into custody in the 81st Precinct on Monday.

Robinson can be seen on the tape crouching and crooning as he enticed the curious cat to come to him outside 1831 Fulton St., a building in the Brevoort Houses, where he lives. The feline, gray with white feet and a tuft of white fur under his chin, moved closer and closer, sniffing at Robinson’s outstretched hand. It appeared too willing to approach a human to be feral.

As soon as the small creature was within kicking range, the brute drew back and belted the cat full-force with his right foot. According to the arrest report, the cat flew about 20 feet — and a veterinarian confirmed to cops the brutal blow likely caused serious injury.

Andre Robinson, 21, is seen luring the cat within kicking range.

Police were unable to say if the cat had been found. [ Update: The kitty was found and taken to a vet; he is recuperating after sustaining serious injuries.]

Cops said Robinson had been outside waiting for a food delivery when the incident happened. He turned to his friends and said, “Watch this,” according to cops.

One of his friends started recording with his phone as Robinson set his trap for the cat. He later admitted to cops that he was the crazed kicker in the video.

Robinson, who has eight prior arrests, including one for knifepoint robbery in 2011, was charged with aggravated animal cruelty. He was previously busted for jumping a turnstile. Six of his eight arrests are sealed, however.

In most of his Facebook pictures, he’s puffing on what looks like a joint while exhaling smoke, eyes half-closed. In one, he’s wearing the same $60 sweatshirt — emblazoned with the words “Save-a-H–” — as he was in the video. A resident of Robinson’s building who identified herself only as Shyvonne, 32, said the cat had been hanging around for months and was friendly and playful. “When I see that video, it makes me want to cry. He kicked him hard,” she said. “I haven’t seen the cat in a few days.”

Police were able to find Robinson with the help of determined animal lovers who identified the scaffolding company visible in the video background. Cops in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, familiar with Robinson, then identified him from the video.

With Tina Moore and Kerry Burke

ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH ROBINSON KICKING THE CAT.

The Morality Of Violence

Editorials

Roland Windsor Vincent

Neither its ineffable beauty nor innocence will spare this pup the lethal blows from a heartless and anachronistic industry, supported by a cowardly and opportunistic government. And Canada’s shame is hardly unique.

There are any number of justifications for human beings killing each other, in waging war to punishing criminals.

There are any number of justifications for humans killing animals, from murder by proxy in the markeplace to killing for fun in the field.

Justifications are similarly raised in defense of exploiting both people and animals, just as rationalizations were used to justify human slavery in the past and animal slavery in the present.

The ostensible reasons, while universally proffered, are seen to be specious on even cursory examination.

Humans raise law, necessity, private property, religion, tradition, individual freedom, etc, as justifications for the exploitation and murder of both people and animals.

But none of those rationalizations is the ultimate reason that human violence is visited upon others or upon animals.

The reason for all violence is simple: Humans have the power to commit violence, and neither the weak nor the unorganized (nor the animals) can prevent it being done to them.

Institutionalized violence has been the province of most governments and of the oligarchs that control most governments. It is carried out by armies, corporations, police forces and legal systems.,

It is taught in the schools and in the pulpits, extolled by the media and political leaders.

And it will never end under our Capitalist system or under our fascist governments.

Only Socialism proposes —carries the ideology and value system—to tear down the institutions of exploitation and violence.

Only Socialism advocates for the victims of the oppressive capitalist system which controls most of the world.

Only Socialism eliminates the incentives for exploitation, and advocates to protect the weak, the disenfranchized, and the unorganized.

Constructing true socialism offers the best prospect to end human and nonhuman exploitation in our long-suffering world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

roland-macaw

Roland Vincent, a socialist and dedicated animal liberationist, is currently in charge of covering the intersection between ecoanimal and socialist questions, hoping to make clear to both sides that an alliance is a natural and mutually beneficial development. He runs several pages and groups on Facebook, including Animal Rights & the Environment, Roland’s Raiders, and others.

Break out the champagne! Non-animal meat makes its debut on NBC’s Today Show

NBC’s Craig Melvin reported on the Beyond Meat breakthrough, and challenged Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Carson, Tamron and the rest of the anchors to identify it in a taste-test. (Spoiler: They failed.)
Patrice Greanville

meatlessMeat-NBCToday

What may well be one of the biggest media events of the decade (or century!) took place almost under the radar on NBC’s Today Show in late April (2014). That morning Beyond Meat joined the Today Show crew for a two-part segment on Beyond Meat, a new manufacturer of a variety of plant-based animal “meats” that can definitely fool the palate.

The list of advantages is impressive, but the most colossal part of this breakthrough is the potential it carries for our planet and most of its living creatures—humans and nonhumans. Among humans—aside from people who have long consumed meat substitutes for ethical or health reasons—many seek an alternative to a food addiction that forces them to consume animals, incurring frequent moral pangs and contributing wittingly to the destruction of a gravely besieged environment.

For non-human animals the arrival of meat substitutes of Beyond Meat quality, represents a potential liberation from the horrors of factory farming and other forms of animal husbandry destined for the abattoir. If non-animal meats advance in popularity, the enslavement, torture and death of countless creatures just to become food on a human platter will no longer prove necessary.

Nonmeat burger. Impossible to distinguish.

For the planet itself, this is also enormously important news. A variety of ecological disasters are directly linked to meat consumption: ranching that destroys primeval forests, ecosystems, and displaces aboriginal peoples; runoffs that pollute rivers and oceans (the Gulf of Mexico a prime example), eventually toxifying most of our waterways; the destruction of the land by creating gigantic waste lagoons and other misuses; and massive reliance on antibiotics to prevent disease flareups in tightly confined animals, a practice which degrades the ability of antibiotics to combat infections, and introduces these substances into the human genetic pool with calamitous consequences.

Those are just some of the utilitarian benefits. For those of us who work on animal liberation out of sheer compassion, and a belief that our planet deserves better, there’s also major cause for celebration. Now we know that history is on our side, at least on this issue.

On the Today Show

The first part had Ethan taking Craig Melvin on a tour of the Beyond Meat facility in Colombia, Missouri to give them a look where the Bill Gates endorsed “Future of Food” is being made each day and being shipped out nationwide to stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, HEB, Publix and thousands of other stores including soon to be Safeway, Target and more!

The next part took the tour back to the NYC studio with the whole Today Show crew including Matt Lauer and Al Roker as they sit down to taste our Beyond Beef Chili and Sesame Beyond Chicken Salad live as it goes up against a dish created from animal proteins.

The segment aired at 8am local time nationwide. Beyond Meat’s Today Show debut was a complete success. We hope they change how America meats, one bite at a time!

FINAL COMMENT
—P. Greanville is editor in chief of The Greanville Post

SELECT AUDIENCE COMMENTS

Issis • 21 days ago

Absolutely wonderful news that the two taste-tested products fooled the Today Hosts … perhaps that will convince their carnivore viewers to finally try non-meat alternatives. As a vegetarian I have been pushing Morning Star and other well-made, meatless products, and welcome these new products. Although the healthier aspects will win over many, – including that they are non-GMO and gluten free, I am happiest that they may finally dampen the ever growing demand for chicken and beef, both of which have horrible consequences for the animals and the planet.

Angela Davis: Leading the Left on Animal Rights

Roland Windsor Vincent

angela-older

I cannot overemphasize how significant this is.
The coming of age of the AR movement!
The beginning of the movement as a political force.
Animal Rights becoming part of the Left’s agenda.
Share with everyone you know!

The three most important developments in the Animal Rights movement have been:

1. The movement began.

2. Angela Davis joined it.

3. Everything else.

Please share this widely. This is the turning point!

Perhaps the most important development so far in the struggle for Animal Rights just occurred.

A little noticed, under-reported, and largely ignored report will shake the movement (and its myriad observers and deriders) to its core.

Many Animal Rights activists have been working to raise awareness among our troops that the movement is philosophically a Leftist one.

My primary mission has been to argue for, and facilitate, broad Left wing coalitions. I believe the animals’ interests are best served by those who also believe in human rights, freedom, democracy, and an end to the capitalist system which promotes and profits through animal exploitation, enslavement, and murder.

While some of us may have credibility and influence within the Animal Rights movement, we have little with the Left as a whole.

And just as important as it is to have AR activists aware of their role in the Left, is making Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, and others on the Left aware of the need to oppose all types of oppression, not just that aimed at our human brothers and sisters.

We have not had a leader of the Left stand with Animal Rights atcivists, UNTIL NOW!

And do we have one!

Angela Davis, probably the most famous, influential, and ethical leader of the Left in America is now the most pivotal person in the Animal Rights movement. I recently shared the article, below, from counterpunch.org

“The food we eat masks so much cruelty”…

Vegan Angela Davis Connects Human and Animal Liberation
.

By JON HOCHSCHARTNER, Counterpunch
Jan. 24, 2014

While Angela Davis is well known for her progressive perspectives on race, gender, and class, less well known are her views on species, which are quite forward-thinking. The great socialist scholar, it might surprise some to hear, does not consume animal products.

“I usually don’t mention that I’m vegan but that has evolved,” Davis said at the 27th Empowering Women of Color Conference, according to a transcript available at RadioProject.org. “I think it’s the right moment to talk about it because it is part of a revolutionary perspective – how can we not only discover more compassionate relations with human beings but how can we develop compassionate relations with the other creatures with whom we share this planet and that would mean challenging the whole capitalist industrial form of food production.”

Challenging this form of food production, Davis said, would involve witnessing animal exploitation firsthand. “It would mean being aware – driving up the interstates or driving down the 5, driving down to LA, seeing all the cows on the ranches,” she stated. “Most of people don’t think about the fact they’re eating animals. When they’re eating a steak or eating chicken, most people don’t think about the tremendous suffering that those animals endure simply to become food products to be consumed by human beings.”

For Davis, this blindness is connected to the commodity form. “I think the lack of critical engagement with the food that we eat demonstrates the extent to which the commodity form has become the primary way in which we perceive the world,” she said. “We don’t go further than what Marx called the exchange value of the actual object- we don’t think about the relations that that object embodies- and were important to the production of that object, whether it’s our food or our clothes or our iPads or all the materials we use to acquire an education at an institution like this. That would really be revolutionary to develop a habit of imagining the human relations and non-human relations behind all of the objects that constitute our environment.”

Davis struck a similar note in a video recording uploaded to the Vegans of Color blog.

“I don’t talk about this a lot but I’m going to do this today because I think it’s really important,” she said. “The food we eat masks so much cruelty. The fact that we can sit down and eat a piece of chicken without thinking about the horrendous conditions under which chickens are industrially bred in this country is a sign of the dangers of capitalism, how capitalism has colonized our minds. The fact that we look no further than the commodity itself, the fact that we refuse to understand the relationships that underly the commodities that we use on a daily basis. And so food is like that.”

Davis suggested viewers watch the film ‘Food, Inc.’ “And then ask yourself,” she said, “what is it like to sit down and eat that food that is generated only for the purposes of profit and creates so much suffering?”

Davis concluded her comments by explicitly linking the treatment of humans and animals.

“I think there is a connection between, and I can’t go further than this, the way we treat animals and the way we treat people who are at the bottom of the hierarchy,” She said. “Look at the ways in which people who commit such violence on other human beings have often learned how to enjoy that by enacting violence on animals. So there are a lot of ways we can talk about this.”

Jon Hochschartner is a freelance writer from upstate New York. Visit his website at JonHochschartner.com.

Now that the bid to halt polar bear trade fails, what?

Canada joined by WWF in rebuffing efforts at Cites conference to stop hunting and commercial exploitation

The Guardian, Thursday 7 March 2013 01.18 EST

Week in wildlife : Polar bears are shown in this undated photograph from UCLA

Canada argues the science does not support a ban on hunting and commercial exploitation of polar bears. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

The export of polar bear skins, teeth and paws from Canada will continue unabated after a bitter debate at the world’s biggest wildlife summit ended in defeat for a US proposal to outlaw the trade.

Using the same old morally bankrupt technique of casting doubt on the obvious, Canada, following the example of climate deniers, argues that there is no sufficient evidence to prove polar bears are in danger.

The US, strongly supported by former cold war foe Russia, had argued that while climate change and the increasing loss of the Arctic sea ice on which polar bears hunt was the greatest threat to the 20,000 remaining in the wild, hunting was an intolerable additional pressure. The US delegation leader told the 178-nation meeting of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species in Bangkok: “Science paints a stark future for the polar bear. An [export ban] will give the polar bear a better chance to persist in the world until we can deal with climate change.”

But Canada – home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bears and the only nation allowing exports – argued there is not enough scientific evidence to show they are in danger of population collapse. Canada says it already has strict rules to ensure hunting is sustainable, and the Canadian delegation leader has dismissed the US proposal as “based more on emotion than science”.

The result was that 38 countries voted in favour of the US proposal, with 42 against, and 46 abstaining. Some countries did not attend to vote.

Inuit delegates appealed to emotion in their own speeches. Terry Audla, president of the national organisation representing indigenous peoples of Arctic Canada, said: “A ban would affect our ability to buy the necessities of life, to clothe our children. We have to protect our means of putting food on the table and selling polar bear hides enables us to support ourselves.”

About 600 polar bears bears are killed each year in Canada, some in traditional hunts by Inuit people and some as trophies for foreign hunters. Half the bears are then exported as skins or other body parts.

The debate was acrimonious, with Audla accusing conservation groups of telling lies. Some nations complained that directly contradictory claims on how polar bear populations were faring had been put forward on each side.

The controversy also split conservation groups, with WWF supporting Canada, saying that making political decisions without enough scientific evidence would severely undermined the Cites system, which controls all wildlife trade. But others including IFAW and NRDC said the science was clear that two-thirds of the 20,000-25,000 existing polar bears would be extinct by 2050.

Most nations accept that the polar bear population is declining. But Cites rules require the projected decline to be more than 50% over three generations – 45 years in the polar bear case. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an official adviser on science to Cites, said it was most likely polar bear populations would decline by 30% in the next 45 years and noted other predictions were more extreme.

“The world has once again had a chance to take action to safeguard polar bears and failed,” said Jeffrey Flocken, North America director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “Each year that this iconic species is not protected to the fullest is another year closer to losing the polar bear forever.”

Some delegates, from both nations supporting and opposing the ban, suggested the US move had been to compensate for a perceived lack of action on climate change in other areas and to help raise awareness of global warming with a sceptical US public. Audla said: “The US is using the polar bear as a blunt tool to bring about climate change concerns – it is the perfect poster child.”

Sarah Uhlemann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said the US should take unilateral action against Canada: “The world failed polar bears today. But the US has other avenues to pressure Canada to curtail its unsustainable hunt. We urge the Obama administration to act quickly to impose trade sanctions as required by US law.”

The UK, Germany and a significant number of other EU nations had supported the ban proposed by the US, but the Guardian understands that Denmark, with its historic links to Greenland, had not. This meant the EU, which votes as a bloc, abstained. Denmark broke ranks and voted no, as it is entitled to when also representing Greenland.

A spokeswoman for Greenland, which has had a voluntary ban on polar bear exports since 2008, said: “If we want to ensure the long term conservation of the polar bear, the focus should be directed to the countries which are emitters and polluters. Climate change is the real threat.”

An intended EU compromise, asking Canada to publish its export quotas and requesting Cites do an urgent review of polar bears, was opposed by both the US as being toothless and by Canada as casting doubt on its existing rules. The head of the EU delegation, Ireland’s Feargal O’Coigligh, denied the bloc’s move had caused confusion and blamed the fact that polar bears received no new protection on the “absolutist positions” take by Canada on one side and the US and Russia on the other.

Russia’s delegate, Nikita Ovsyanikov, who is a leading polar bear expert, said: “Polar bears are struggling for survival already and exposing them to hunting will drive them to extinction.”