My thought was that for all that's screwed up in the world, somehow we managed to smuggle in a rule that stuck to /some/ people /some of the time/ that we help others who are suffering, and that helping with the suffering is the principal motivation for the act in a case like this one. I find that comforting.

As for the comments, ask yourself when was the last time anyone with actual power to affect the world wasted time scribbling teenage wiseass graffiti in online story comments. "Never" is a good answer for that one.

Dr. Martha Stout, in her chilling book "The Sociopath Next Door," cites statistics indicating that roughly 4 percent of the population exhibits signs of being unable to feel empathy or sympathy. Sometimes I wonder if they're all posting to newspaper websites.

That poor animal died miserably...

I agree the comments under the story are unbelievable. I think people feel that they can be as twisted as they want to be because it's anonymous. I was really sad to hear about this poor animal.