You
may have read about the recent case of four young boys – one
as young as nine years old – who tormented and killed a baby
wallaby at Dudley Zoo.
The
crime was deemed so heinous by the presiding judge that he took
the highly unusual step of naming the two older boys citing the
“most serious form of cruelty” carried out by 11-year-olds
Ryan Jones, Kieron Anslow and their two younger cohorts.
The
two 11-year-olds and their 10-year-old accomplice were last week
given 12-month behavioural orders and fines costing their families
a total of £1,100. The youngest child was too young to be
prosecuted.
A
crime like this raises all sorts of uncomfortable issues. The boys
– having scaled the perimeter fence of the West Midlands zoo
- had been captured on video camera climbing nonchalantly into the
wallaby pen.
Zoo
staff had only put up the cameras following several strange occurrences
over previous weeks. The discovery of a wallaby with a badly injured
leg was at first blamed on foxes. Then, when heavy bins were knocked
over or moved during the night, they knew it couldn’t be down
to wild animals.
The
keepers were horrified by what they saw, and by the calculation
the boys showed in their actions. The first lot of footage showed
them banging on the wallabies night shelter to drive them into their
enclosure, then chasing them around until “they looked sad”
according to one boy.
The
next time, their behaviour worsened. The boys got hold of a baby
wallaby, threw it into the next enclosure where it landed in a concrete-lined
pond. They then repeatedly dunked it in and out of the water until
it died, presumably from shock. They then returned the dead baby
to the wallaby pen and were caught by keepers in another part of
the zoo.
Animal
cruelty by children has always been seen as a worrying subject.
The boys who murdered James Bulger were known to torture and kill
small animals. In Dudley after the case, the public were vocal in
their disgust of the boys’ actions - there was a petition
against them, local councillors condemned them, people on the street
even talked of hanging.
Yet
when you consider the boys’ background, it must be accepted
that they need help and rehabilitation. Their home life appears
to not be one of the easiest. The two oldest boys both live with
single parents and siblings, in a deprived area of the West Midlands
town.
The
actual action of breaking into the local zoo has never in itself
been seen as an issue. It appears to have been more of a dare. A
couple of years ago, two other children broke into the wallaby enclosure
and took two babies home to keep as ‘pets’. A cute and
naïve story, not like this drama.
Yet
the staff at Dudley Zoo are trying to give the children a helping
hand with their rehabilitation. The boys have had meetings with
zookeepers and are required to do weekly tasks there as a way of
righting their wrongdoing.
In
court, his defence said that Kieron Anslow’s public manner
was deceptive – that at home he helped feed the family pets
and give the baby a bottle. So perhaps we should ask questions about
what makes children like this ‘toughen up’ on the outside.
What makes them do stupid and cruel things?
Is
it all about belonging – to the local crowd? Have the parents
lost control so badly that they cannot stop their children crossing
the line between natural inquisitiveness and outright criminality?
It certainly is payback time, not just for these boys, but for the
wider community too. We can only surmise about how these children
are treated by the man and woman in the street. But any group of
adults that gets up a petition against a quartet of small primary
school children surely needs to look at their own behaviour too?
That kind of knee-jerk reaction is merely mob-rule of another sort.
It
has to be payback time for everyone, the community as a whole. Local
government, councillors, church and youth organisations need to
work together with one common goal: to help children like this feel
that they belong.
It
can be done. It will take time, but the more we point the finger
and alienate these children, the more unwelcome they will feel in
their home community – and that can only be a bad thing.
The
zoo staff have the right idea. If they, more than anyone, can accept
what has happened and work towards helping the boys as they mature,
then so can the people of Dudley.
Mark
Galikowski, the head of Dudley’s youth offending service was
quoted as saying, “The kids want to get back to being kids
again.”
Let’s
hope the people in their community will help them do just that.
