When to report “appalling” news

There is never a good time to run a story about an area teenaged boy convicted of torturing gophers in the newspaper. Slapping it on the front page two days after Christmas was jarring to more than a few readers, based on the phone calls and emails we received.

We always struggle with the placement of those kinds of stories.

To place it lower on the front page or on the inside page might suggest to some that we’re trying to sanitize the news or shield the guilty (who, in this case, is protected by a court-ordered publication ban of his name because he is a young offender).

The funny thing is that whenever we put stories like that on the front page, people complain that we do it “to sell newspapers.”

In my 30-year career, I’m still waiting to meet a reader who buys newspapers solely to read stories about horrific crimes.

The reality is those are the kinds of stories that anger and upset readers, making them turn away from the newspaper on the newsstand or cancel their subscription in disgust.

Other readers react in disbelief, shocked that something so horrible could happen in this area.

In the case of Tuesday’s story, the horror comes in two parts, delivered in equally blunt doses by reporter Samantha Wright Allen’s lead: “A youth who skinned gophers alive and cut off their feet had his sentence stayed because the time it took for the case to proceed violated his rights.”

In other words, the torture happened and the teen was found guilty but he will not be punished or ordered into mandatory counselling because the courts took too long to prosecute his case.

When that kind of systemic failure of due process occurs locally, particularly in this case where a sentence could have provided the youth with much-needed help to avoid committing the same or worse crimes in the future, that’s front page news, as difficult as it is to receive.

I’ve also yet to run into reporters who enjoy writing those kinds of stories or an editor who likes to publish them.

The Citizen’s legal reporter, Mark Nielsen, was tipped off about the judgment and spent more than a month trying to gain access to a written copy of the ruling. He certainly wasn’t looking forward to sharing the depraved details of gopher torture and was somewhat relieved the document was released while he was away for Christmas.

This story is part of a much broader context. There is a well-established connection between serial killers and the violence abuse of animals when they were teenagers.

Former Prince George resident Kayla Bourque was convicted in 2009 of torturing and killing animals. Law enforcement officials took the unusual step of warning the public of Bourque’s release from jail, considering her a high-risk to reoffend because of her ongoing sadistic and murderous fantasies involving people.

And not everyone was offended by Tuesday’s story.

Killing gophers with poison, slingshots, pellet guns or traps for anyone who grew up on the Prairies is standard operating procedure.

They are an agricultural menace that ruin crops and make fields dangerous for horses and cattle.

To more than a few people, the only good gopher is a dead one and if that death involved the use of box cutters, no harm done.

Giving the lens one more twist, humans are not unique when it comes to torture. Ask any cat owner the glee with which their precious felines toy with a captured mouse or bird before finally putting it out of their misery, not to eat it but just for fun.

In the wild, biologists have documented numerous mammals, from wolves and whales to lions and chimpanzees, extending the hunt and capture of their prey for no meaningful purpose except that it seems to give them pleasure.

That’s not to say that animals are consciously malicious or to condone torture by humans because it’s natural.

A teenager torturing animals is a threatening symptom of far worse future behaviour. The legal system fumbling such a case because the boy lives in an isolated rural community is worrisome as well.

What would also be scary is if people weren’t appalled to see a story like that on the front page of their local newspaper.

Neil Godbout is managing editor of The Prince George Citizen and a former reporter with The Penticton Herald.