WASHINGTON DC, United States – I can’t really say I adore cats. I like them but am not a bona fide cat lover. Years ago, cats and their generations of litters roamed, played and lived in our old home. One thing I can say though is that I can tolerate them. They exude a certain attitude, a distinct spunk and definitive independence. But to actually hate cats and have the audacity to kill or maim one every few months is detestably cruel. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Being a cat-killing scholar from the University of the Philippines doesn’t help one bit.

Having the urge to kill something (or worse, someone) says a lot about a person. It means that killer wants to permanently end the existence or life of a living creature, a fundamental wrong in many religions and culture. But having the urge to kill something every so often signifies something even more–either an irresistible impulse, depression or a mental health issue.

It is perhaps the thrill of the kill that excites this cat killer. Just because he can. That’s impunity.

The Cat-Killing Scholar from U.P.

This cat-killing scholar is Joseph Carlo Candare from the University of the Philippines. In 2009, he was a sophomore in the U.P. National Institute of Physics (NIP) when he blogged about his latest cat kill. This particular blog garnered international condemnation and uproar. He deleted his blog but it was too late. The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) filed a court case against him and pursued it ever since. Two years later, he was convicted.

Very recently, Candare was sentenced by a judge to pay a fine of P2,000 (about $46) and serve two to six months of volunteer work at an animal shelter taking care of more than 200 cats and over 50 dogs. If you think that’s too lenient, I strongly agree with you.

Just volunteer work? Not even compelled community service? No jail time as per the law? He certainly would have received a harsher penalty if this happened in a more animal-protective country. Google his name and you’ll see so much condemnation and abhorrence.

Candare is a Physics major from the so-called “University of the People”, thus a recipient of state university funding culled from citizens’ taxes. His is the very first conviction of a person accused of animal cruelty in the Philippines by violating Republic Act 8485, the Animal Welfare Act. If animal welfare organizations and the public remain vigilant, this won’t be the last.

Blogging About Killing a Cat: Epic Fail

What did him in is his own admission of brutally killing a cat in his former blog. He wrote that he mercilessly killed the cat in the university by grabbing its tail and slamming it, and then jumping on it like a pro-wrestler. He blogged and bragged that he hit the cat squarely on the torso. No remorse at all but a proud display of something like “I just killed a cat and you can’t touch me.”

When the cat didn’t die at that point and ran away, he pursued it for the kill. What only stopped him was when someone yelled at him to leave the cat alone. He complied, and was surprised that he did. The cat died a while later after it coughed up blood, and he was pleased as hell.

Look at a screenshot of Candare’s former blog and “Epic Fail” is written all over. It denotes his frustration about some things in his life such as spending away his tuition money, calling “HQ (butuan) to send in reinforcements” and delay in the banking system. Epic Fail is also attributed to Teteng the cat still being alive after the one-sided wrestling affair. Epic Fail is likewise descriptive of his low feeling only “for the next few days” after learning of the cat’s death.

But these are not genuine Epic Failures, to use his term. They were of his own making and irresponsibility. The real “Epic Fail” episodes are his maltreatment and criminal proclivity towards animals as well as the perceived failure of his friends, classmates and family to stop or counsel him on his bizarre violence towards cats.

His categorical admission on his former blog reads: “This isn’t the first time I’ve killed a cat … it’s very well loved in NIP from what I heard and I just ended it’s (sic) life … I won’t be striking another one for maybe about a month. If feels good when your (sic) beating it (a cat) up but suddenly feel something strange when it turns off permanently … Dang, am I a cat serial killer?”

First, whether it’s in a blog, an exam or a published writing, use “you’re”, not “your”, when one is shortening the words “you are”. There’s even a Facebook page appropriately called “It's YOU'RE, not YOUR”. Second and more importantly, killing a cat once a month is despicable and unexplainable. Anyone who does that is sick in the head. Scholars are no exception.

Loose Screw

If it is a way to release academic pressures or to soothe away life’s tensions, it is absolutely the wrong outlet. If such action is to compensate for something that happens, or fails to happen, at home or in school, it is obviously not the solution. If, for example, this is a response to bullying, it is in turn the bullying of a smaller and defenseless creature.

If you’ve been to the University of the Philippines in Diliman, chances are you’d immediately see a lot of cats roaming around. It is a cat haven. This cat-killing scholar most likely had a field day during his heyday as feline victims abound. Did he keep a kill scoreboard? Did he feel this urge to kill a cat every time he fared bad in an exam or had a rough day? Was there a trigger for this odd, offensive behavior? Seems to me he’s a loose screw who took out his frustrations on cats.

Cat Killer’s F(r)iends

But what’s also bothering me is what his classmates and friends failed to do. Did they talk to him to stop his cat-killing spree? It seems like they didn’t do anything or didn’t do enough. Candare himself admitted in his former blog that this is not the first time he killed a cat and that he will, for that 2009 time period, lay off striking cats for about a month. This means he regularly killed or injured these animals. His classmates and friends would surely have known. What did they do?

His former blog reads, “Nobody ever stopped me when assaulting cats.” So either his friends stood by when his urge to kill or to strike came or they weren’t there to stop him. Even if the cats were killed or struck in their absence, he would have surely bragged to his friends what he did the day after. To do nothing after the fact when they know he’d kill or maim another animal again is like witnessing the act itself and doing or saying nothing.

They are as guilty as Candare himself. Epic Fail.

Specifically, Candare names his friends as “Mel, Jayson, Tracy” and “Myles”. All University of the Philippines scholars, all supposed to be models and paragons of virtue, honesty and scholarship. All receiving people’s taxes as scholarship money one way or another.

But they failed in containing Candare’s “internal hatred” for cats. Epic Fail.

News reports say that witnesses to his barbaric acts on the cat Teteng testified against him in court and led to his conviction. But these reports did not name these witnesses; some of them may in fact be his friends or classmates. Even assuming some testified against him, it was late in the game. This cat killer had previously killed or injured many other animals with their knowledge or acquiescence.

Further assuming they belonged to a Physics organization or another school group, they should have informed their leaders or faculty adviser about this matter because it is that serious. It’s not only these dead cats but it’s also knowing and unmasking Candare’s cat-killing impulse as a manifestation of something deeper (or creepier).

He needed help in 2009; he needed help years before that. He certainly needs help now either in the form of good counsel, psychological evaluation, genuine friends to lean on, maybe anxiety medications, better family relations, stern faculty scolding or perhaps some prison time.

His family knew or should have known that he has this tendency to inflict injurious pain to cats. If they didn’t know, they are perhaps inattentive since there probably were many cats in their neighborhood and Candare would have targeted some of them. If they knew and didn’t do anything, that’s contributory to the death of the cats. It’s like an implied support. Epic Fail.

No Prison Time?

What about the prison time in the animal welfare law that Congress legislated and the Executive signed into law? It was flicked away and, in its place, a short volunteer work. Epic Fail.

Under Sec. 6 of R.A. 8485, “It shall be unlawful for any person to torture any animal … maltreat any animals … kill or cause or procure to be tortured …” The penalties under Sec. 8 are: “Any person who violate … shall, upon conviction by final judgment, be punished by imprisonment of not less than six (6) months nor more than two (2) years or a fine of not less than … P1,000 nor more than … P5,000 or both at the discretion of the court.” The court, although it’s the judge’s discretion, should have imposed the fine and minimum imprisonment to teach him a lesson.

The irresistible urge to kill infamously blogged by the cat-killing scholar Joseph Carlo Candare is no small or laughing matter. It goes against everything about animal rights protection and welfare. If you believe that animals and other creatures have the right to exist as much as human beings, this is a clear breach of that right.

Has he learned his lesson? Only he knows.

It’s only a cat, some will argue vehemently. But it’s alive and breathing, existing, subsisting. It’s alive. It’s a life.
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This column’s author, Carlo Osi, is a lawyer & writer based in Washington, D.C. and educated by Georgetown Law (cand.), the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton (Cert.Bus.), Kyushu University, and UP.  carlo.osi@gmail.com or http://look-to-the-east.blogspot.com.