Philip Gregory Tripp Wins Again in Court as Another Ailurophobic Judge, Bereft of Even an Iota of Justice, Reduces His Sentence for Stealing and Drowning Mango

Every Bit as Ugly as He Is Evil, Tripp and His Eclectus Parrot, Jackson

Tripp is a "law-abiding man with an interest in conserving wildlife."

-- Judge Jonathan Priestley

If there ever were a poster boy for all the sadistic cat thieves and killers in this world it surely would have to be seventy-one-year-old Philip Gregory Tripp of King Street in Coffs Harbour, five-hundred-forty kilometers north of Sydney in New South Wales. Not only has he committed innumerable heinous crimes against members of the species, but he also has had the audacity to publicly brag about his cruelty and cleverness.

Even after he at long last was finally arrested on July 22nd of last year, he was able to have put his Janus-faced personality and considerable skill as a consummate prevaricator and brown-noser to good use while simultaneously hiding behind his considerable fame, fortune, and shysters in order to evade justice. Nonetheless, his phenomenal success in the courtroom would not have been possible without the invaluable assistance and succor that he has received from Australia's laughingly corrupt and biased judicial system and, in particular, that of Judge Jonathan Priestley of the District Court in Coffs Harbour whose jurisprudence amounts to little more than a third-rate ventriloquist act designed to aid and abet the rich and famous in the commission of their crimes.

After having equipped his five-acre estate with surveillance cameras, Tripp has been regularly trapping his neighbors' cats and then drowning them, while still caged, in trash cans filled to the brim with water. So far, no one has been willing to publicly speculate as to how many of them that he has killed over the years but the tally surely must number in the dozens if not indeed hundreds.

None of that ever has been hidden from the public; au contraire, he has made a habit of not only bragging about his crimes on Facebook but also of mounting some of his victims' corpses on signs in his front lawn. It is even strongly suspected that he has used food in order to lure them onto his property for the sole purpose of trapping, torturing, and killing them.

His killing spree came to a halt, at least temporarily, last July 22nd when he trapped and drowned a truly beautiful ginger and white female named Mango who was owned by his neighbor, Emma Votto. "The first feral cat of the season," he wasted no time in crowing on Facebook that very same day. "Saw it on one of my video cams last night, baited the trap with a small can of Dine®, woke up this morning to meowing."

He then went on to demonstrate beyond any doubt that he is a man who not only loathes cats but also derives unbridled joy out of defaming, torturing, and killing them. "Filling the green wheelie bin with water so I can give it (a) swimming lesson and mercifully euthanize it in fifteen seconds in the sinking cat trap," he sarcastically added in a celebratory vein.

J. Hickson was not amused. "This man is a repeat offender and has, allegedly, done the same thing on at least several occasions, proudly boasting about his actions on social media," she wrote July 23rd on change.org. "These are the actions of a cruel psychotic who seeks to justify and publicize his desire to torture and kill."

It is unclear why that it took so long for any of  his neighbors to report him to the police but more than likely that gross oversight is attributable to the all-out war that the politicians, mass media, professors, and titans of industry have been waging against cats for years. Millions of them already have been slaughtered by every cruel and inhumane method imaginable and the authorities do not have any intention of relenting until they have eradicated the entire species from every nook and cranny in the country.

Consequently, the entire Australian population has been brainwashed to the point that it is no longer capable of separating fact from fiction, morality from moral depravity, and wildlife conservation from Hitlerism. Even those few individuals who are still capable of thinking and feeling for themselves have been frightened into keeping their traps shut by the unceasing anti-cat drumbeat being churned out by the authorities. (See Cat Defender post of November 18, 2016 entitled "A Clever Devil at the University of Adelaide Boasts That He Has Discovered the Achilles' Heel of Cats with His Invention of Robotic Grooming Traps as the Thoroughly Evil Australians' All-Out War Against the Species Enters Its Final Stages" and Australian Geographic, February 23, 2022, " 'A Diabolical Problem Needing Radical Answers': When Cats Are Not So Cute.")

Astute enough to quickly realize that he was now in big trouble, Tripp quickly decided to cut his losses by pleading guilty on July 26th. "The matter will be decided in court and I do not plan to contest the charge nor to exact any expense from the judicial system," he was quoted by The Industry Observer of Chiswick on October 26th as having pledged at the time of his arrest. (See "Former South by Southwest Representative Phil Tripp Will Lose Companion Parrot Following Animal Cruelty Case.") "I have liaised with the (Australian) RSPCA and made an extensive statement to the police who treated me fairly and with care in charging me."

He followed that up by making his most ludicrous declaration of all. "I should man up, own this and face the music," he blew long and hard to The Industry Observer.

Due to His Online Boasting, Tripp's Guilt Was Never in Doubt

Being the thoroughly rotten son of a bitch that he is, Tripp never has manned up to anything in his entire life. In fact, he is not a man at all but rather a four-flusher and a monster and just to prove it he immediately changed his plea and retained the services of local shyster Hugh Schlieger in order to help him beat the rap that he had just confessed to committing.

His first trial therefore was held in Coffs Harbour District Court on October 25th with the imbecile of imbeciles, magistrate Ian Rodgers, presiding. Every bit as much as Rodgers was off his game, Old Schlieger was very much on his and he came out of the dugout swinging for the fences.

First of all, he threw down the gauntlet by daring Rodgers to convict his client because he has enjoyed an illustrious career in both the pet and music industries. As best it could be determined, Tripp's only contribution to the pet industry has been his involvement with the Urban Animal Magazine, a free rag handed out in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Having never seen it, its contents and editorial philosophy are a mystery but, knowing Tripp, it is difficult to fathom how that it could be anything other than a scurrilous anti-cat screed.

In the music world, he has garnered considerable international fame as the former longtime representative for Austral-Asia and Hawaii to the annual South by Southwest music festival which is held each March in Austin. He accordingly is not only a darling of the capitalistic media but a kindred spirit as well. 

Secondly, Schlieger argued that Tripp was "deeply remorseful" for what he had done to Mango but it did not take prosecutor Heidi Warren long to put the kibosh to that sottise. "The contrition and remorse, in my submission, is being caught and embarrassed in the community," she told the court according to the Australian Broadcasting Company's (ABC) October 25th report. (See "Animal Lover Phil Tripp Will Lose Companion Parrot after Drowning Cat in Garbage Bin.")

Thirdly, he argued that Tripp has been an animal lover all of his life. He just conveniently neglected to mention that his client fervently believes that cats do not have any right to exist.

Fourthly, he told the court that Tripp has a right to defend wildlife on his property, even if that entails deliberately luring cats onto it for the sole purpose of killing them. Fifthly, Schlieger had the unmitigated gall to plead with the court to show mercy on his client because he had suffered a heart attack in Honolulu in 2016.

Such reductio ad absurdum reasoning ignores the petit fait that trapping and drowning cats, mounting their corpses on his lawn, and boasting of his devilry on Facebook is hardly the work of an invalid. Plus, there is all of his far-flung travels to be factored into that equation. 

When it came time for the lamebrained Rodgers to render his verdict he went out of his way so as not to disappoint either Tripp or Schlieger. He accordingly let the sadistic cat killer off with nine months of probation, one-hundred hours of community service, and a five-year ban on the owning of any animals and that included the forfeiture of his eclectus parrot, Jackson, that he has owned for more than twenty years.

In his defense of that ridiculously lenient sentence, Rodgers cited Tripp's good character, his remorse, and his early guilty plea as mitigating factors. As it should be plainly obvious to everyone, the only character that Tripp has is bad character, his remorse was feigned, and he quickly changed his guilty plea and vigorously contested the charges laid against him in court.

Amazingly enough, even that sweetheart deal failed to have satisfied Tripp and as a consequence Schlieger had already announced his intention to file an appeal long before the ink was even dry on Rodgers' insane opinion. Unfortunately for the crafty Schlieger, he was not destined to be a part of that process because Tripp promptly fired him in favor of Carlo Bianchino. (See Cat Defender post of November 28, 2021 entitled "Bird Lover and Music Industry Icon Philip Gregory Tripp, Who Stole and Drowned Mango and Then Went on Facebook in Order to Sarcastically Brag about His Cleverness, Is Treated Like a Hero by a Court in Coffs Harbour.") 

In August of 2020, Tripp Stole, Killed, and Exhibited an Unidentified Male Cat

So, hot stuff Tripp was back in the District Court of Coffs Harbour on February 2nd but with Bianchino as opposed to Schlieger at his side and with Priestley having replaced Rodgers as the presiding judge. Not much changed, however, in that the second go around proved to have been every bit as much of a farce as the initial undertaking.

Determined to succeed where Old Schlieger had stumbled, Bianchino not only trotted out all of his predecessor's dodges but added a few new wrinkles of his own. "Jackson the bird is an innocent party," he thundered in Priestley's ear according to the ABC's February 8th account of the proceedings. (See "Philip Tripp Loses Appeal to Keep Companion Bird after Killing 'Beloved Family Cat,' but Sentence Reduced.") 

In support of that contention, he submitted the written testimony of avian veterinarian Rob Marshall of the Carlingford Animal Hospital in the city of the same name, five-hundred-ten kilometers south of Coffs Harbour via the Pacific Highway, who told the court that it would be "impossible to replicate the complex bond between Mr. Tripp and his parrot." As a result, he maintained that Jackson might suffer digestive issues and possibly even the onset of unspecified diseases if he were taken away from the cat killer. 

"If I could ask the bird, it would probably say he likes living with Mr. Tripp," Priestley readily conceded according to the ABC. Other than gaining that concession from the judge, all that Marshall's blowing and whining succeeded in accomplishing was to once again demonstrate writ large that all bird-lovers stick together like congealed feces and therefore can always be counted upon to come to the defense of the criminals in their midst no matter how many offenses they have committed against cats and their owners.

Being little more than hate-filled liars and criminals, none of the testimony that they render in court has so much as an ounce of veracity and, to his credit, Priestley possessed enough intelligence to recognize that. He accordingly proceeded to dash Tripp's and Bianchino's euphoria by ruling that the detrimental effects of ordering the forfeiture of Jackson were "overstated."

"While (he) might miss his owner, he isn't going to suffer death as a result," he concluded. In doing so he cited the testimony of an unidentified woman who told the court that she regularly cared for Jackson at least once a year for up to as long as eight weeks at a time while Tripp was out of town.

Since Tripp has repeatedly lied about everything else, it is not the least bit surprising that he also has been considerably less than truthful about his supposedly great love for Jackson. Otherwise he would not fob off his care on others for such extended periods of time.

Presumably, he will be able to regain custody of him once his five-year ban on owning animals expires. If not, he will simply go out and buy another parrot. 

In the meantime, it is entirely possible that Jackson could be residing with one of Tripp's buddies. If such a cozy arrangement does in fact exist, Tripp will be able to not only see Jackson whenever he wishes but also to, in effect, circumvent the court's forfeiture order. Clever, well-connected cretins like him are seldom ever punished by the courts in any meaningful way.

The most bizarre moment during the hearing occurred when Votto testified that Tripp was "sincere and remorseful for his actions" in a written apology to her. By contrast, Hickson had written earlier on change.org that Mango's owners had been left "devastated and traumatized" by his theft and drowning of her.

Unless Tripp paid Votto for her testimony, the only logical conclusion to be drawn from her abrupt change of heart is that Hickson was wrong about her and that she never cared all that much for the beautiful Mango. In the final analysis, what Tripp did to Mango was not only unforgivable but also irremediable regardless of whatever asinine excuses that Rodgers and Priestley may concoct. 

Avian Veterinarian Rob Marshall Wasted No Time in Rallying to Tripp's Side

As far as Tripp's earlier conviction on the animal cruelty charge is concerned, Priestly conceded that there was not any evidence that the defendant had attempted to confirm that Mango was not a feral. Even so, that is putting the matter rather mildly in that Tripp most assuredly knew that she was not homeless given her friendly demeanor, shiny coat, and healthy weight. Most importantly of all, a cat's socio-economic status should not have any bearing whatsoever on either its inalienable right to live or its ability to avail itself of the protections afforded by the anti-cruelty statutes.

Priestley went on to cite Tripp's enthusiasm for killing Mango and his boasting about his foul deed on Facebook. Finally, he noted that "no doubt the cat was frightened" while adroitly avoiding any mention of her suffering and the loss of her life.

He accordingly refused to overturn Tripp's earlier conviction. "I don't accept it's (the loss of Jackson) a reason for there not to record a conviction," he ruled according to the ABC's account. "It's a serious case of  animal cruelty."                                                   

No sooner had those words escaped from his forked tongue than Priestley did a verbal about-face that left little doubt that he never had taken what was done to Mango so much as even halfway seriously. He did so by reducing Tripp's original sentence of twelve-months of intensive correction to twelve-months of community correction.

It is unclear exactly what the difference is between the two except that the latter is a considerably less restrictive type of probation. More than likely it will require Tripp to interrupt his rock n' roll lifestyle in order to pay a visit to his parole officer about once a month.

During those visits, he and the officer will most likely shoot the bull for a few moments, tell a few jokes, and then Tripp will continue on his merry way, all the while laughing up his sleeve at how cleverly he has outfoxed the dimwitted Priestley. It is entirely conceivable that he might even be released early from probation.

Considerable confusion already exists as to the exact length of his probation. For example, the ABC reported on October 25th that it was for only nine months while on February 8th it maintained that it was for a full twelve months. Furthermore, both articles were written by Claudia Jambor but she has not made any effort to reconcile that glaring discrepancy.

Moreover, her February 8th effort fails to make any mention of the one-hundred hours of community service that Rodgers earlier had ordered Tripp to complete. Likewise, neither article makes any mention of Tripp having been either fined or ordered to pay for the cost of his two hearings. The more that the matter is delved into, the sweeter the deals look that he was given by Rodgers and Priestley.

In a feeble attempt to justify his reduction of Tripp's sentence, Priestley accepted Rodgers' nonsense chapter and verse. First of all, he ludicrously asserted with a calloused heart and a head like a rock that Tripp was a "law-abiding man with an interest in conserving wildlife." If he truly believes such balderdash, it is safe to conclude that he would not recognize a criminal if one were to stab him in the ass with a dagger.

Much more to the point, Tripp's allegedly clean record does not prove nearly as much as the beastly Priestley would have the world to believe. For instance, knowledgeable individuals fully realize that the biggest and most successful lawbreakers in the world are those that are never caught. Like the Biden clan, they simply either hide behind their positions and wealth or they are too slick to ever be apprehended.

Besides, even when they are exposed for what they are, they are able to afford skilled lawyers in order to pull all the right strings for them. As the legal  eagles are fond of intoning, a defendant is innocent until proven broke.

Mango Never Received an Ounce of Justice in Either Life or Death

Secondly, he cited Tripp's early guilty plea without even bothering to acknowledge that he almost immediately retracted it. Thirdly, Priestley stubbornly insisted upon citing his remorse which even Warren was able to have seen through as a cruel sham.

Fourthly, Priestley took note of his character references. In that regard, he surely could not possibly be so stupid as to have expected Bianchino to have called any of Tripp's detractors to the witness stand.

In spite of all the nonsense that percolates throughout Priestley's dishonest gourd, none of those considerations are in any way relevant. Tripp committed the foul deed and he accordingly should have been punished to the fullest extent of the law, which even then would have been a woefully inadequate five years behind bars.

Stenches-of-the-bench such as Priestley and Rodgers need to be stripped of their discretion in sentencing. The job of judges is to mete out punishment and not to excuse the rich, famous, and well-connected from obeying the law and that most definitely should include the anti-cruelty statutes.

Neither Tripp nor Bianchino have publicly announced if they plan on continuing their fight with yet still another appeal but it would not be the least bit out of character if they chose to go that route. Tripp has plenty of money and nothing but time, and blood, on his hands.

 Most horrendous of all, he is once again free to resume stealing and murdering cats. He may cool his killing hands until he is released from probation but after that it will be business as usual for him.

The only thing that will change is that in the future he will not be doing any bragging on Facebook or exhibiting the corpses of his victims on his lawn. Not only is there not anything to deter him but he now has the stamps of approval from two judges to continue to indulge in his passion for shedding feline blood.

It was quite a spectacle that Priestley, Rodgers, Schlieger, and Bianchino put on during the course of these two trials but that was all that it was from start to finish. None of these charlatans had so much as a scintilla of justice to dispense to Mango and by choosing to have behaved in such a disgraceful manner they have heaped nothing but scorn and derision upon Australia's already laughingstock of a judicial system.

Most deplorable of all, the innocent victim of Tripp's repulsive crime has been totally forgotten. With the notable exceptions of Hickson and the Animal Justice Party, absolutely nobody, including even Votto, has been willing to even speak up for either Mango's inalienable right to live or to demand justice for her.

The perennial cat defamers and haters at Rupert Murdoch's scurrilous network, the ABC, have not even been willing to broach the subject of what as done with her remains. She, like millions of other cats that the despicable Australians have murdered in recent years, never counted for anything in either life or death.

Photos: The Industry Observer (Tripp and Jackson), Facebook (Tripp's confession and Mango by herself). change.org (another one of Tripp's victims), and The Pigeon Insider (Marshall).

Two Drivers for the United States Postal Service Deliberately Run Over Four Cats in New Galilee but They Are Allowed to Escape Justice and to Keep Their Jobs

The Paganis Return Home after Having Committed Their Dastardly Deed

"(So) it's no big deal to run them over intentionally? I think it's a big deal."

-- William Bittner

Running down and killing cats has replaced baseball as this nation's pastime but, unlike the latter where a modicum of skill is required, any scumbag can play this cowardly game. All that is needed is some type of automobile and an ingrained hatred for members of the species.

Although cruelty to cats is more commonly associated with ornithologists, wildlife biologists, PETA,  vivisectors, and other assorted sociopaths culled from the dregs of society, it also is a favorite hobby of politicians and businessmen alike. After all, no one knows better how to subvert the laws than those who write them and the moneyed interests who have put them in power in the first place.

For instance, on December 1st thirty-one-year-old Frank W. Pagani, Jr., was caught red-handed attempting to kill a quartet of cats on Washington Avenue in New Galilee, a small burg of fewer than four-hundred residents located sixty-eight kilometers northwest of Pittsburgh. Although motorists intentionally run down, maim, and kill cats all the time, what made this event newsworthy was the fact that Pagani not only was a sitting member of the New Galilee City Council but also in business with his father, Frank W. Pagani, Sr., as the owners and operators of Pagani and Son Trucking Company at 905 Washington Avenue where they make deliveries for the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Given that it is practically unheard of for any of these feline murderers of the roadways to ever even be identified let alone arrested, neither Pagani nor his father, who was riding alongside him at the time of the crime, ever feared for one moment that they, big shit politicians and businessmen, ever would be caught and held legally accountable. Consequently, the younger Pagani showered down on the accelerator of his white pickup truck, crossed over to the opposite side of the street, and mowed down four cats.

 
At the corner, he ran a stop sign and turned right into his yellow, woodframe house, also at 905 Washington Avenue. There can be little doubt that by this time his adrenaline levels were off the chart and he was feeling especially proud of himself and his dirty deed. He may even have entertained delusions that he was either Superman or King Kong. Visions of receiving a medal and, perhaps, a commendation and a hefty raise in pay from the USPS may have danced throughout his warped gourd.

His feelings of superiority and invincibility proved to have been short-lived, however, because his criminal behavior had been witnessed by an unidentified man in a orange vest who trailed him and his father to their retreat and took them to task for what they had just done. A verbal argument ensued but the slack local news media have not disclosed any details about what was said.

Whereas it is all-too-easy to discredit the testimony of an eyewitness, it is an altogether different matter to rebut surveillance footage and, in this instance, the younger Pagani's criminal behavior had been dutifully recorded on a camera mounted on the outside of the residence of William Bittner. Equally importantly, he and other dedicated volunteers operate a TNR program in New Galilee and it was those petits faits that ultimately served to have cooked Pagani's rotten goose.

"A vehicle turning the bend up here realizing the cats were on the road, sped up trying to run down the cats and he was going so fast that he ran the stop sign then proceeded to go right over there to his house," Bittner testified to WPXI-TV of Pittsburgh on December 3rd. (See "Local Councilman Resigns after Video Shows Him Speeding Up to Hit Cats with Car (sic).")

He did not stop there, however, but instead posted the video on Facebook and that in turn provoked the ire of Pagani and his parents who promptly began badgering him by telephone to take it down. That behavior in itself demonstrates conclusively that the elder Pagani was every bit as responsible for what was done to the four cats as was his son. Besides, he is the one who brought up his son not to have so much as a scintilla of respect for either feline lives or the traffic laws.

William Bittner Stood Up to the Paganis

To his credit, Bittner was not about  to be intimidated by the strong-arm tactics of the Pagani clan or to be placated by the younger Pagani's pledge to resign his council seat. "You did the thing, you want to resign, you resign and so he did and he thinks that's the end of it," he sneered to WPXI-TV. "You just can't let an act like that go on without someone being charged."

Quite understandably, he not only was justifiably concerned about the welfare of the victims but also the detrimental impact that the Paganis' criminal behavior was going to have on his TNR initiative. "It costs US$50 a cat to do this so all those people donating money they say it's useless. We will get them fixed, and they are out in the street and he going to run them over," he continued to WPXI-TV

In a rather revealing example of just how little regard that most Pennsylvanians have for the sanctity of feline life, not a single solitary soul within the capitalistic media has so much as bothered to even attempt to ascertain the fate of the cats that were run down by the Paganis. All that is known is that at least one of them was seriously injured if not indeed killed.

"He could have hit the undercarriage of the front, he could have had his tail run over, could have been bruised or ran off, and we've been searching and searching and we can't find him," Bittner told KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh on December 3rd. (See "Beaver County Man Says His Security System Shows Driver Allegedly Trying to Run over Cats.")

Bittner's advocacy soon attracted the attention of the Beaver County Humane Society (BCHS) in Aliquippa, thirty-seven kilometers south of New Galilee, and on December 3rd it sent investigators to the scene of the crime in order to canvass door-to-door for additional eyewitnesses. A week or so later, it officially charged the younger Pagani with one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty and one count of aggravated felony animal cruelty. The elder Pagani was not, but should have been, also charged. (See The Times of Beaver County, December 13, 2021, "Charges Filed Against Former New Galilee Councilman for Hitting Cats with Car.") 

In spite of all the good work done by both Bittner and the BCHS there was not about to be so much as a smidgen of justice for the four cats that were so cruelly run down by the Paganis. For starters, on January 31st Beaver County prosecutor David J. Lozier inexcusably dropped the aggravated felony animal cruelty charge.

Under Pennsylvania's recently revamped anti-cruelty statutes, a conviction for aggravated felony animal cruelty is punishable by up to seven years in jail and a fine of US$15,000. (See WCAU-TV (NBC-10) of Philadelphia, August 28, 2017, "New Law Protects Pennsylvania Animals from Abuse, Neglect by Stiffening Penalties for Abusers.")

After that it was a foregone conclusion that Pagani was destined to walk away unscathed which he promptly did during the second week of February when, after he had pled guilty to the misdemeanor animal cruelty charge, an unidentified judge in Beaver County Court, sitting in the city of Beaver, let him off with twelve months of probation. Every bit as revolting, after he has completed that walk in the park he can ask the sentencing judge to expunge his conviction for misdemeanor animal cruelty.

As far as that is concerned, there can be little doubt that the overly obliging judge who orchestrated this sweetheart deal will grant his request even though a conviction for second degree misdemeanor animal cruelty is supposedly punishable in Pennsylvania by two years in jail and a fine of US$5,000. (See The Times of Beaver County, February 11, 2022, "Former New Galilee Councilman Placed in Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program for Running Stray Cats over with His Truck.") 

Since The Times of Beaver County devoted only five very slim paragraphs to Pagani's trial, it is not even known if he had to pay any court costs. He most assuredly will not be charged for the state's cost of supervising his time on probation.

 David J. Lozier Is Madly in Love with Cat Killers

So, what is the point? Even on this extremely rare occasion when Bittner and the BCHS did the work of the cops and the courts their efforts were undercut by a district attorney who adamantly refused to prosecute and a judge who would not punish Pagani even after he had been caught in the act by at least one eyewitness and his criminal behavior had been recorded on camera. The only thing that Lozier accomplished by allowing him to cop a plea deal was to place his and Beaver County's stamp of approval upon his running down of the cats.

Even more outrageously, he nullified the work of the legislators in Harrisburg to strengthen the anti-cruelty statutes. On the other hand, perhaps that is precisely what they had in mind all along in that they could not have possibly failed to realize that by enacting such legislation without at the same time mandating that district attorneys must prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law and that jurists must impose the sentences prescribed in the statute would amount to little more than beau geste and a cruel public relations sham.

The ball is now back in the legislators' court and they must decide if they have the moxie in order to strip prosecutors and judges of their freedom to ignore the law. Regardless of whether they act or not, Lozier and the trial judge stand convicted in the court of public opinion as being nothing more than common criminals themselves. 

With that being the case, it is not the least bit surprising that Pennsylvania is one of the most dangerous places in the country for cats to reside. First of all, cops are allowed to gun them down with impunity. (See Cat Defender posts of March 31, 2008 and September 1, 2016 entitled, respectively, "A Cecil, Pennsylvania, Police Officer Summarily Executes a Family's Beloved Ten-Year-Old Persian, Elmo" and "The Legal and Political Establishment in a Small Pennsylvania Backwater Closes Ranks and Pulls Out All the Stops in Order to Save the Job and Liberty of the Bloodthirsty Cop Who Murdered Sugar.")

                                                        

Secondly, the state's sleazy degree mills routinely kill and ignore the plight of homeless and ailing cats. (See Cat Defender posts of February 12, 2007, June 9, 2008, and March 19, 2014 entitled, respectively, "The God-Fearing Baptists at Eastern University Kill Off Their Feral Cats on the Sly while Their Students Are Away on Christmas Break," "A Small Pennsylvania College Greedily Snatches Up an Alumnus' Multimillion-Dollar Bequest but Turns Away His Cat, Princess," and "The Cheap and Greedy Moral Degenerates at PennVet Extend Their Warmest Christmas Greetings to an Impecunious, but Preeminently Treatable, Cat Via a Jab of Sodium Pentobarbital.") 

Thirdly, some of the state's shelters kill domesticated cats shortly after they have been impounded without  holding them for the legally mandated waiting period and making any serious effort whatsoever to reunite them with their lawful owners. (See Cat Defender post of March 19, 2010 entitled "Trapped and Killed by the Delaware County SPCA, Keecha's Life Is Valued at Only $1 by a Pennsylvania Arbitration Panel" and WCAU-TV (NBC-10) of Philadelphia, November 15, 2017, "Animal Shelter Euthanizes Man's Pet Cat after Failing to Find Microchip.")

Fourthly, attacks by motorists, mutilations, hoardings, abject neglect, and unspeakable acts of cruelty are simply accepted as the norm by most citizens and their overlords in the Keystone state. (See Cat Defender posts of March 5, 2007, April 24, 2010, May 10, 2010, January 28, 2016, May 12, 2017, and May 18, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Run Down by a Motorist and Frozen to the Ice by His Own Blood, Roo Is Saved by a Caring Woman," "Holly Crawford Hits the Jackpot by Drawing a Judge Who Simply Adores Kitten Mutilators and Dope Addicts," "The Lunatic Rulings in the Cats with No Name Cruelty Cases Prove Once Again That Pennsylvania Is a Safe Haven for Cat Killers and Junkies," "Boo Is Unwittingly Walled Up in Concrete and Likely Would Have Spent Eternity There If It Had Not Been for the Heroics of a Good-Hearted Landscaper," "Miracle Maisy Is Bound and Tied, Soaked in Petrol, Sealed Up in a Plastic Bag, and Then Run Through a Trash Compactor but, Amazingly, Is Still Alive Thanks to a Pair of Compassionate Garbagemen," and "Churchill Is Covered in Paint and Burned in the Neck by a Gang of Juveniles in Yet Still Another Outrageous Assault Upon a Cat in Reading," plus WPMT-TV of York, March 16, 2022, "Feline Rescue Group 'Shocked' after Finding Dead Cats, Poison in Food Bowls in Prospect Hill Cemetery in York." ) 

Fifthly, abusing and killing cats is so popular with Pennsylvanians that even members of the capitalistic media have gotten in on the craze and that goes a long way toward explaining their neglectful and slipshod reporting on this issue. (See Cat Defender post of July 7, 2012 entitled "NBC-10 Philadelphia Conspires with a Virulent Cat-Hater and an Exterminator in Order to Have Six Newborn and Totally Innocent Kittens Killed in Southern New Jersey.")

Even during these difficult economic times when the price of milk is fast closing in on five dollars a gallon, the state's minimum wage remains stuck in place at a measly US$7.25 an hour. No matter how that the current state of affairs is analyzed, whether it be from the perspective of rampant statewide animal cruelty which includes, inter alia, coyote killing contests as well as the killing and barbecuing of dogs, soaring automobile pollution in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the destruction of Bradford County due to fracking, and the prevalence of abject poverty and violent crime everywhere, Pennsylvania is a dump! (See The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, April 2, 2021, "It's Time to Eradicate Wildlife Killing Contests from Pennsylvania" and The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 3, 2021, "A Bucks County Man Shot His Dog and Then Barbecued It, Police Say.") 

Regrettably, it is not an isolated case. All across the country from murderous, thieving cops at street level to the big phonies who parade and strut about on the United States Supreme Court in Washington, the entire judicial system is as corrupt as hell and, as a consequence, seldom has so much as a thimbleful of justice to dispense to anyone or anything.

That is why that motorists such as the Paganis, the cops, Animal Control officers, shelters, veterinarians, vivisectors, PETA, and others are free to run down, steal, abuse, and kill cats to their hearts' content. It  therefore is inescapable that trickle down economics has led to trickle down morality, justice, and intellectualism.

Stéphane Gendron Gets a Huge Thrill Out of Running Over Cats and Kittens

All of that is in spite of the petit fait that the study of the law is an easy discipline. It does involve a considerable amount of reading and a basic acquaintance with hermeneutics but almost any halfwit can easily master it with a minimal amount of effort.

All that is required is a knowledge of the relevant statutes and the rules of evidence. The burden of proof always rests with the prosecution and it only needs to be ready, willing, and able to prove its case in court.

If a defendant is convicted, whether it be in a jury or a bench trial, it is the job of the judge to mete out punishment. In this particular case, the unidentified judge in Beaver County Court had the younger Pagani dead to rights and therefore did not have any business whatsoever of allowing Lozier to drop the felony indictment against him or to refuse to jail him for his guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge.

Consequently, that unidentified stench-of-the-bench is either corrupt or incompetent and accordingly should be immediately defrocked and sent packing. It is the job of jurists to apply the law and not to excuse their buddies within the political establishment, the rich, well-connected, and powerful from obeying it.

Unfortunately, Americans do not enjoy a monopoly on either feline abusers or corrupt and good-for-nothing public officials. For example, on July 9, 2013 Stéphane Gendron, the mayor of Huntingdon, seventy-five kilometers southwest of Montréal in Province Quebec, was so emboldened that he bragged about running down and killing cats with his pickup truck on his show for CHOI, 91.9 Radio X in Quebec City.

"When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate. Stray cats have no business in the street," The Globe and Mail of Toronto reported him as confessing on July 13, 2013. (See "Quebec Mayor in Cat Scandal Under Investigation by Animal Rights Activists.") "So bang! I accelerate!"

It is killing kittens, however, that thrills him the most. "The other day, I backed up on one, it was a newborn. I'm sure he didn't feel anything," The Huffington Post reported him as declaring on July 13, 2013. (See "Stéphane Gendron Killed Cats with Truck, He Admits on Radio Show.") "The pickup ran on it like nothing. I was so happy, yes! One less."

Whereas the younger Pagani has had the bon sens to have kept his malignant trap shut, there can be little doubt that he is cut from the same piece of miserable cloth as Gendron. Consequently, he is the same type of rotten human being that both Lozier and the presiding judge in his case fervently believe is entitled to enjoy the protection and sanctuary afforded by the judicial system in Pennsylvania.

The Canadian SPCA and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council pledged to look into the matter but, predictably, neither of them did anything of the sort. Pet food manufacturer Mondou of Montréal did, however, have the decency to pull its advertising from Radio X.

"Shocking but not surprising," Leni Parker of the Pussy Patrol in Montréal chimed in to The Globe and Mail. "Quebec is one of the worst places on the planet in terms of animal abuse and complacency." (See Cat Defender post of December 15, 2016 entitled "A Quebec Man Risks His Own Life by Electing to Spend Four Days in a Hellhole Prison Rather Than to Give Up His Six Elderly Cats.")

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Needs to Fire the Paganis

Most people are unwilling to face the truth but all the dead cats that litter the shoulders of the highways and byways have been intentionally killed by hit-and-run motorists like Pagani and Gendron. In other words, it is not cars, as the lying capitalistic media would have the world to believe, that kill cats but rather motorists.

Common sense alone should inform anyone that it is extremely difficult for a motorist to accidentally run down a fleet-footed cat and that applies to even those that unwittingly wander out into traffic. Besides, all motor vehicles of today are equipped with state-of-the-art braking and suspension systems that enable them to be stopped on a dime.

All of that in turn constitutes more than ample reason for the recall of all prosecutors and jurists who so stubbornly refuse to take these hideous crimes seriously. (See Cat Defender posts of March 18, 2009, June 18, 2015, and June 25, 2015 entitled, respectively, "Eco, Who for Years Was a Mainstay at a Small Massachusetts Police Department, Is Run Down and Killed by a Motorist," "Harry Is Run Down and Killed by a Pair of Derbyshire Police Officers Who Then Steal and Dispose of His Body in an Amateurish Attempt to Cover Up Their Heinous Crime," and "Kayden Is Run Down Three Times in Succession by a Van Driver in Yet Sill Another Graphic Example of How So Many Motorists Intentionally Kill Cats.")

Compounding an already deplorable situation, a sizable number of these victims previously had been victimized by kidnappers who in turn had dumped them in unfamiliar locales and that accounts for them being anywhere within range of their executioners. (See Cat Defender posts of November 16, 2007 and February 8, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Fletcher, One of the Cats Abducted from Bramley Crescent, Is Killed by a Motorist in Corhampton" and "The Long and Frustrating Search for the Kidnapped Mr. Cheeky Ends Tragically Underneath the Wheels of a Hit-and-Run Motorist.")  

Other victims previously had garnered considerable fame during their brief lives and their cold-blooded murders have left not only their owners but their fans from around the world heartbroken. (See Cat Defender posts of August 17, 2006, January 30, 2010, November 21, 2012, and April 17, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Brave Little Fred the Undercover Cat Has His Short, Tragic Life Snuffed Out by a Hit-and-Run Driver in Queens," "Casper Is Run Down and Killed by a Hit-and-Run Taxi Driver while Crossing the Street in Order to Get to the Bus Stop," "Officials at Plymouth College of Art Should Be Charged with Gross Negligence and Animal Cruelty in the Tragic Death of the School's Longtime Resident Feline, PCAT," and "As Peat Tragically Found Out, Alcohol and Cats Are Such a Bad Mix That Even Working at a Distillery Can Be Deadly.")

Even those that are fortunate enough to survive these premeditated attacks, often wind up maimed for life or are soon thereafter executed by cops, Animal Control officers, shelters, and veterinarians that are far too ailurophobic and cheap to nurse them back to health. (See Cat Defender posts of April 29, 2010, October 30, 2010, November 13, 2010, January 5, 2011, March 22, 2011, November 10, 2014, October 13, 2016, August 8, 2019, and August 14, 2019 entitled, respectively, "Long Suffering River Finally Finds a Home after Having Been Run Over by a Motorist and Nearly Drowned," "A Drunken Bum Is Foiled in His Plot to Make a Meal Out of Kittens, Nirvana and Karma, That He Allegedly Had Run Down Earlier with His Truck," "Christopher, Who Has Persevered Through Tragedy and Given Back So Much, Is Now Being Held Captive for His Valuable Blood," "Gunned Down by an Assassin and Then Mowed Down by a Hit-and-Run Driver, Big Bob Loses a Leg but Survives and Now Is Looking for a Home," "In Another Outrageous Miscarriage of Justice, Rogue Cop Jonathan N. Snoddy Is Let Off with a $50 Fine for Savagely Bludgeoning to Death an Injured Cat," "Freya, the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Resident Feline, Cheats Death Once Again When She Survives Being Run Down and Injured by a Motorist but Her Good Luck Cannot Last for Much Longer," "Bart Has Courageously Overcome Being Run Down and Nearly Killed by a Hit-and-Run Motorist and Subsequently Buried Alive by His Owner but Another Dark Cloud Is Looming over His Future," "Hounded Down and Nearly Killed by a Hit-and-Run Motorist, Eli Desperately Needs Additional Surgeries in Order to Fully Restore His Previous Level of Mobility," and "No Respect for Life: Early Graves and Crippling Injuries Are All That Cats Who Dare to Set Food in the Street Can Expect from the Bloodthirsty Motoring Public.") 

Those cats that motorists do not kill outright with their streaks-of-lightning vehicles, they instead dump in traffic so as to allow their equally lawless colleagues the privilege of mowing down and killing. (See Cat Defender posts of January 14, 2008, August 28, 2008, February 21, 2009, July 2, 2009, July 6, 2009, September 12, 2009, July 16, 2010, August 12, 2010, and May 17, 2016 entitled, respectively, "Freeway Miraculously Survives Being Tossed Out the Window of a Truck on Busy Interstate 95 in South Florida," "In Memorian: Trooper Survives Being Thrown from a Speeding Automobile Only to Later Die on the Operating Table," "A Daring Rescue in the Sky Spares the Life of a Cat That Was Dumped on an Overpass in Houston," "Three-Week-Old Lucky Is Rescued by a Staten Island Judge after She Is Tossed Out the Window of a Pickup Truck on Hylan Boulevard," "Miracle Survives a Drowning Attempt on the McClugage Bridge and Later Hitchhikes a Ride to Safety Underneath the Car of a Compassionate Motorist," "Luzie Sustains a Broken Hip and a Bloody Mouth Before She Is Successfully Rescued from the Busy Elbtunnel," "Tossed Out the Window of a Car Like an Empty Beer Can, an Injured Chattanooga Kitten Is Left to Die after at Least Two Veterinarians Refused to Treat It," "Gia and Mr. T. Survive Separate Attempts Made on Their Lives after They Are Abandoned on Busy Bridges During Inclement Weather," and "The Corpses of Eleven Cats Are Found Locked Inside Pet Carriers That Were Dumped Alongside North Carolina Roads but the Authorities Are Unwilling to Go after Their Killer.")

Cats count for so precious little with those in power that even some municipalities have outlawed roadside memorials to those that have been killed by motorists. (See Cat Defender post of October 9, 2010 entitled 'Feline Traffic Victims Are Unworthy of Commemoration According to a Möhnesee Bureaucrat Who Orders the Destruction of a Roadside Memorial to Jule.")  

Since cops are so unwilling to go after motorists who kill cats and the courts are too corrupt to punish even the handful of them that are caught flagrante delicto, it is not the least bit surprising that neither group is willing to lift so much as a lousy finger in order to investigate the killing of pedestrians and bicyclists. (See Cat Defender post of August 10, 2009 entitled "A Georgia Woman Is Struck and Nearly Killed by a Motorist while Attempting to Rescue a Pair of Kittens That Had Been Dumped in the Middle of a Busy Highway.")

Cat crossing signs, such as those that have been erected in Milford, Connecticut, and on the remote Japanese island of Iriomote, may help a little but not all that much because those motorists who run down cats for fun are not about to be deterred by a million warning signs. (See Cat Defender posts of January 26, 2007 and November 27, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Cat Activists Succeed in Getting a Connecticut Town to Erect a Cat Crossing Sign" and "After Surviving on Its Own for at Least Two Million Years, a Rare Japanese Wildcat Is Facing Its Toughest Battle Yet.")

The Outlook Is Bleak for Homeless Cats in New Galilee

Since there can be little doubt that both of the Paganis have run down and injured and killed cats on previous occasions, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy should immediately fire them. While he is at it, it would be prudent for him to issue a directive to all of his drivers to be kind to cats and other animals and to follow that up by dismissing all of them that are caught using either USPS vehicles or their own jalopies in order to commit these despicable offenses.

The USPS receives gobs of welfare money each year in order to continue to operate its unprofitable, but direly needed, service and the receipt of such largesse should be contingent upon its employees obeying both the anti-cruelty statutes as well as the rules of the road. Anyway that the situation is analyzed, the Paganis have forfeited their right to operate any motor vehicle, commercial or private, and they are, moreover, a menace to individuals as well as cats.

None of that is about to happen, however, because even on its best days the USPS is about as anti-cats as the Interior Department's United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the USDA's Wildlife Services. For example, in January of 2009 its retail office in Notasulga, Alabama, evicted a cat named Sammy. (See Cat Defender post of February 11, 2009 entitled "The United States Postal Service Knuckles Under to the Threats and Lies of a Cat-Hater and Gives Sammy the Boot.")

The Royal Mail has an even more atrocious record when it comes to mistreating cats. (See Cat Defender post of November 18, 2013 entitled "Cast Out and Set Adrift Upon a Sea of Unremitting Misery and Uncertainty by the Disgracefully Ailurophobic Royal Mail, The Cat at Long Last, Hopefully, Has Found a Safe Harbor" and the Daily Mail, March 8, 2012, "Postman Jailed for Smashing Cat's Head with Mail Trolley and Throwing Her into Garden to Die after She Jumped in During His Round.")

Finally and most distressing of all, the prospects for homeless cats in New Galilee look rather bleak. Not only are they in grave danger with the Paganis still on the loose instead of serving lengthy jail terms, which is exactly what they so richly deserve, but they are under assault from another quarter as well.

According to WPXI-TV, as of early December Bittner and his confederates had trapped twenty-eight of them but had been able to line up only six potential homes for them. Most deplorable of all, Bittner has admitted to killing at least two of them.

"We don't need his (the younger Pagani's) idea of Animal Control," he wrote on Facebook. While that certainly is true enough, this world does not need his or anybody else's perverted practice of TNR.

Recruiting volunteers in order to perform the dirty work of Animal Control officers, cops, shelters, and veterinarians is simply reprehensible. To have even so much as an ounce of credibility, all TNR practitioners must stop killing cats.

That unconscionable practice exists everywhere there is TNR but it is especially noticeable in the Bay Area, New York City, and Denver. (See Cat Defender posts of September 28, 2011, December 22, 2011, and December 11, 2021 entitled, respectively, "Marvin Is Betrayed, Abducted, and Murdered by a Journalist and a Shelter Who Preposterously Maintain That They Were Doing Him a Favor," "A Rogue TNR Practitioner and Three Unscrupulous Veterinarians Kill at Least Sixty-Two Cats with the Complicity of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals," and "Socks, Coors Field's Most Famous Feline Resident, Is Saved from the Gallows by a Pathology Report after She Is Trapped, Misdiagnosed, and Unjustly Consigned to Death Row.")

Sickly and injured cats deserve veterinary care and safe homes in which to live out their dwindling years and it is the job of all TNR practitioners to provide them with those basic essentials no matter what the cost. Betraying their trust and killing them helps only the volunteers themselves and most certainly not the cats.

Photos: KDKA-TV (the Paganis running down cats), WXPI-TV (Bittner and a brown cat), Beaver County (Lozier), Ian Barrett of The Globe and Mail (Gendron), and the USPS (DeJoy).