Item from a recent Mathews County sheriff’s report:

"…a deputy was flagged down by a motorist in the Garden Creek area on Oct. 25. The person reported that someone had thrown a small black kitten out of the passenger side of a moving vehicle."

After all these years of trying to educate people. After the unceasing efforts of the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society to take in unwanted animals. After the thousands spent by the Animal Care Society to assist with spaying and neutering cats and dogs. After the huge sums and effort spent to put the low-cost spay-neuter clinic at White Marsh.

After all of this, cats and dogs are still "taken for a ride" and dropped by the roadside, thrown from vehicles or left in boxes to a usually terrible fate.

In our view, this is one type of crime in which the Old Testament "eye for an eye" punishment is well suited. If ever a perpetrator could be caught, strip that person of everything familiar—food, clothing, warmth. Blindfold and take that person to an unfamiliar county. Turn him or her out in the dark on a back road.

That’s about the same way the person treated the cat or dog that was no longer wanted.

If you have a cat or dog, puppy or kitten you cannot take care of, for the sake of human kindness, take it to the animal shelter. Or call animal control. Treat it as you would want to be treated. Cruelty to animals is on a par with cruelty to children or to disabled or elderly adults. Those who depend on us for their safety deserve caring and humane treatment.

In the case told above, the incident report continued: "The kitten was retrieved and taken to a veterinarian. The witness reported that the kitten was thrown from a dark blue car. The investigation is continuing."

May justice be done, and may that kitten find a loving home. Unlike many young cats and dogs born here and unwanted each year, it is one of the few lucky ones.