"...because he thought it was funny."

[zeitgeist]

Gizmodo - Oregon Man Used an Electric Dog Collar to Shock His Kids "Because He Thought It Was Funny" - Dog collar

Salem, Oregon resident Todd Marcum, whose name we will use repeatedly because of the nature of his crime, has been arrested for maliciously abusing his four young children with an electric dog collar.

According to police lieutenant Dave Okada, Marcum admitted that Marcum shocked his children, aged 3, 6, 8, and 9, "because he thought it was funny."

Marcum told police that he would chase the 3-year-old boy around with the collar, making him cry at the thought of being shocked. Okada said that because of the boy's behavior, it is likely that the children were shocked more than once.

The collars, being powered by a nine-volt battery, are not strong enough to actually injure a child (or a dog), but that's no excuse for this jackass's behavior. Marcum is currently in jail in Salem on four charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment, and we hope he stays there.
Father uses dog collar to shock kids | StatesmanJournal.com | Statesman Journal

[IADad]

so, i'm confused, was it becaause of their behavior, or because he thought it was funny...? - Jackass

maybe he'll have fun running around the jail scared he's gonna be someone's prison bride...

[fallon]

what a jackass!!!

[meow_173]

thats horrible!

[Xero]

WOW what a complete jerk! Seriously, that's messed up... Thank god they threw that idiot in jail. If only they'd put a collar on him and shock him all day long.

[GracieK]

I suppose it would be too Orwellian to ask for psychological testing before allowing people to be parents...

[IADad]

Originally Posted by GracieK

I suppose it would be too Orwellian to ask for psychological testing before allowing people to be parents...

yeah, prob a li'l bit...but I don't see anything wrong with having to pass a test, about the same complexity of a written driver's license test, before you're allowed to take a baby home from the hospital.

[Xero]

Wouldn't that be nice?

[zeitgeist]

I'm glad as any that the kids will be all right in the end, but this kind of a reaction...

I am entirely against the idea of any kind of government mandated prerequisites for having children. While no one is born with a gun or a car, every normal child is born with a reproductive system. Having children is not a privilige that the government can grant, it's an innate part of every person's biology and it's each person's right to reproduce as they see fit.

Parents are given every opportunity to learn these days. The hospital we went to offered free classes on childbirth, child rearing, breast feeding, safety in the home. Fire stations will show you how to properly install a car seat. The internet is FULL of information for any parent to find and learn.

Not a single one of these classes, web-sites, or institiutions would - until this moron came along - sit parents-to-be down to explain that putting shock collars on their children is a bad idea no matter how funny they think it is.

It's one of those outlier situations that wouldn't have been covered. No class, test, or evaluation will be able to predict when this, or any of a host of other doofuses will short circuit and do something dumb.

[Jeremy+3]

someone has been watching too much dirty sanchez