After today’s class discussion about people putting dry sponges in microwaves and them catching on fire I got to thinking about something. Several years ago someone had told me a story about a person putting their pet cat in the microwave in an attempt to dry it off after it had come in from the rain. Clearly, to me at least, this is an incredibly disturbing story, but I decided to investigate it some more. I discovered two news stories: one from BBC News dated June 20, 2001 and the other from a South African news channel dated May 18, 2005. Both tell horrible stories about a pet cat being microwaved to death—intentionally.
A medical examination of the British cat revealed bleeding in the brain, presumably the cause of death. While the other article does not contain medical details, Physics Professor Visser postulates, “‘Like a human, a cat’s body is about 80 percent water. This means the nervous system would boil before death occurred.’” I am guessing that the microwave radiation boiled the water in the brain causing a rapid increase in pressure which led to ruptures in the blood vessels, severe bleeding, and ultimately death.
Like I said before, these reports are incredibly disturbing to me and I would like to believe that no one would be capable of this kind of cruelty. The British woman was mentally unstable—if only due to alcohol consumption—and as Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officer Fivaz says of the other guilty party, “‘the person should get psychological help.’” Judge for yourself.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1707234,00.html
5 comments:
I agree that those reports are incredibly disturbing. I have noticed from personal experience that cats are more highly regarded in the United States then in most other countries. It is not surprising to me that cats being microwaved intentionally occurred in other countries. On a similar disturbing note, I have heard of people putting their cats in the clothes dryer intentionally to dry them. My father is a veterinarian and he has had a client who has intentionally put a cat into a dryer.
Speaking of the cat being put in the microwave, there was a recent story of two teenagers in atlanta who baked a puppy alive. They have been charged with 9 felony counts and could face up to 90 years in prison. The link to the article is [http://georgiapuppytorture.blogspot.com/]. It really makes me wonder what goes on in people's heads at times after you hear about crazy stories like this.
As disturbing as those acts are, I was reading an article about a lady from Virginia who microwaved her newborn. It seems as though Elizabeth Renee Otte suffered from epilepsy and unconsciously stuffed her baby in the microwave. How disturbing is this? http://www.plaininsane.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/33-Mom-Allegedly-Microwaves-Baby.html
Wow, people put a lot of strange things in the microwave. I am also distrubed by the stories of microwaving animals and children. How could people possibly rationalize doing this? The articles we read in class where people were putting dry sponges in the microwave is one thing, but your child?
All this talk about the microwave reminds me of a song lyric that basically says not to microwave your food with saran wrap because it forms molecular bonds with your food and turns your intestines into tupperware. I don't think the artist actually has a science background, but it does make you stop and think....
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