Local animal rights extremists should be caught and prosecuted | Macon Telegraph

There are extremists involved in almost every crusade -- people who believe that their goals are so important that they will go to any length to achieve them. We have witnessed that train of thought in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh. Sept. 11, 2001 marks the day when Muslim extremists sought to strike at capitalism by flying planes into the World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and a third attack that ended in a Pennsylvania field instead of the White House or U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

But we don’t have to gaze far afield to find extremists. They live among us. Monday, after a demonstration at the Bibb County Courthouse to call for an investigation into the euthanization of animals at the shelter, it became known that Bibb County’s CAO Steve Layson had received text messages and e-mails threatening the life of interim Animal Welfare Director Deborah Biggs. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

While someone is allowing their inner Bart Simpson to run wild, this is no cartoon and it’s not funny. It’s also counterproductive to the goals of those who genuinely care about what happens to animals in Bibb County. Biggs isn’t the only public official to receive threats.

Some wackos can’t differentiate between policy disagreements and personal attacks. The perpetrators should be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are better than that.

-- Charles E. Richardson, for the Editorial Board