Musings from the Merse
Sunday, February 20, 2005
am endebted to the Mourne Observer Website (Co Down, Norn Iron) for the following sad little story from the 'Man about Town' column. It was headed 'The Other side of the story'
AN anonymous correspondent takes the paper (and the column) to task over the coverage devoted to the recent nasty incident in which a Newcastle woman’s pet cat was mauled to death.Although the original report on the tragic demise of Ginger the cat (26 January) referred only to the episode having involved two dogs and that it took place close to the cat owner’s Ardkeel Park home, the correspondent, going into considerable detail, offers a stout defence for two neighbourhood pedigree dogs, saying they were well supervised and there was no proof they were responsible for the cat’s death.Be that as it may, I return to the point that no information, including breed, colour or size of dog, was given in the sensitively written story that would have pointed the finger of suspicion in any particular direction.It should also be pointed out that, on the day of publication of our original story, an approach was made to the Mourne Observer with a view to putting forward “the other side of the story.”It was arranged and confirmed with the caller that the same reporter and photographer, who had been responsible for the original story and pictures, would be available that Friday (28 January) for a follow-up story.However, there was no contact that day and nothing further was heard about the matter until the anonymous letter arrived last Thursday (10 February)."
I can't see it would have been much of a follow up story, even with photographs, about pedigree dogs who were allegedly not responsible for the crime in question. SCOOP: Interview with owner of dogs. Ginger killing Denied. Many exclusive photos! Now had the dogs been prepared to confess in their own words, showing no perceivable contrition, and were nationalist animals having put to death a nationalist cat -and, to raise the level of interest, they had done so because they believed that the cat in question was about to pull the plug on the IRA over theNorthern Bank £25m robbery. Then that would have been a story.
AN anonymous correspondent takes the paper (and the column) to task over the coverage devoted to the recent nasty incident in which a Newcastle woman’s pet cat was mauled to death.Although the original report on the tragic demise of Ginger the cat (26 January) referred only to the episode having involved two dogs and that it took place close to the cat owner’s Ardkeel Park home, the correspondent, going into considerable detail, offers a stout defence for two neighbourhood pedigree dogs, saying they were well supervised and there was no proof they were responsible for the cat’s death.Be that as it may, I return to the point that no information, including breed, colour or size of dog, was given in the sensitively written story that would have pointed the finger of suspicion in any particular direction.It should also be pointed out that, on the day of publication of our original story, an approach was made to the Mourne Observer with a view to putting forward “the other side of the story.”It was arranged and confirmed with the caller that the same reporter and photographer, who had been responsible for the original story and pictures, would be available that Friday (28 January) for a follow-up story.However, there was no contact that day and nothing further was heard about the matter until the anonymous letter arrived last Thursday (10 February)."
I can't see it would have been much of a follow up story, even with photographs, about pedigree dogs who were allegedly not responsible for the crime in question. SCOOP: Interview with owner of dogs. Ginger killing Denied. Many exclusive photos! Now had the dogs been prepared to confess in their own words, showing no perceivable contrition, and were nationalist animals having put to death a nationalist cat -and, to raise the level of interest, they had done so because they believed that the cat in question was about to pull the plug on the IRA over theNorthern Bank £25m robbery. Then that would have been a story.
Comments:
I fail to see the funny side. The killing of Ginger the cat was horrendous; I witnessed it. There was nothing funny about it, the person who tried to make light of such an incident should also be regarded with the same contempt as those irresponsible dog owners.
# posted by 
: 9:24 PM
: 9:24 PM
In that cse you should go to the Mourne Observer-with your name-and tell the whole story. But it is a bit late now.
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