At least he didn't kick any puppies

Kicking puppies.

I'm definitely against it.

Killing cats too. I read today where an 18-year-old kid was arrested in Florida on the charge of killing -- sometimes skinning them and sometimes setting them on fire -- a couple of dozen cats in his neighborhood.

This is bad, and I can say that even though I'm not a cat person. I'm a dog person.

The story, from Huffington Post, says that Tyler James Weinman could face as much as 158 years in prison, which is sort of odd when you realize there were no human victims of these crimes.

Just cats.

But is this really just a ridiculous story about people going overboard for animal rights, or is there something more to it?

Actually, torturing animals is one of the three most common things that men who grow up to be serial killers have in common, along with setting fires and wetting the bed. It's not a foolproof indicator; a friend of George W. BushGeorge W. Bush's from when he was young said the two of them used to use firecrackers to make frogs explode, and Bush grew up to be president.

But when I look at Weinman's face, I can't help but wonder if I'm looking at the face of a future Ted Bundy. And before you accuse me of overreacting, read the story.

Nineteen cats, some of them skinned and tortured and left for their owners to find. He is also accused of four counts of burglary.

Riddle me this: If you knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that this boy was a Ted Bundy in training, if you knew that he would graduate from killing pets to killing people, what would you do?

I've never been a subscriber to the old Father Flanagan adage that "there are no bad boys." I truly believe that evil exists in the world (hey, just look at Dick CheneyDick Cheney) and that we don't always see it.

But when we do see it, what do we do?

Do we call him a first-time offender and give him a light sentence, or do we use the law to put him away for a long, long time? These may be questions for people wiser than any of us, but they are questions that need to be asked.

By the way, the Cheney thing was a joke. He may have shot a guy in the face once, but as far as I know, he never killed any small animals.

That's one point in his favor.