Deborah Coddington: Love for animals may give hope for redemption

Was a killer and rapist's love for his cat a tiny sign of some humanity? Photo / Sarah Ivey

I don't rage against animals. Anger towards humans is understandable. Who hasn't felt 4-in-the-morning frustration when the baby won't stop crying, you've been up for hours, the other kids are soon awake and you're about to snap? But there's a line across which most of us do not cross.

We don't throw the baby against the wall, use the spouse as a punching bag, whack the children awake just because we feel like rubbish.

But animals? Unless they attack and we defend ourselves, how can a human deliberately torture an animal? Put puppies in sacks with stones and cast them into a river? Dump the family cat in the country to fend for itself? Set kittens alight for fun? Leave dogs chained for days with no food or water? Starve horses and calves to skin and bone until they must be put down? I love animals so much these stories make me cry.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I like my meat to have a happy life before it's slaughtered, so I raise my own pork and eggs. And remember, animals too eat animals. Fish eat fish. Birds kill lambs, snatch chicks and baby rabbits. The animal kingdom is brutish and life is short.

I'd often observed that people who had no feelings of kindness towards animals treated their fellow humans with similar callousness.

Indeed, more than a decade ago in Britain, child welfare authorities began exchanging information with the RSPCA because they realised it was more than a coincidence carers who sexually or physically abused their children were also likely to be reported for neglecting or abusing their pets.

But life is so unpredictable. Last month, along came a story I found ineffably sad, and which also reminded me there is no black and white when it comes to human nature.

Gary McKinley, now 48, was sentenced to four years' jail for stabbing a fellow inmate, Peter Biddle, in Rimutaka Prison. McKinley, the Dominion Post reported, was being bullied and taunted by Biddle about a little stray cat he'd befriended and named Mouse, which sometimes slept in his cell. Biddle scared McKinley's cat away and threatened to kill it, boasting that he was particularly skilled at brutally annihilating cats. Brave fellow.

To compound the situation, a woman McKinley thought of as his partner had recently died, and he couldn't find her grave.

So on Boxing Day McKinley caught Mouse, hid her, and stabbed Biddle seriously enough to warrant a jail sentence, but not badly enough to cause lasting damage.

He told authorities: "I would do anything to protect the cat. It's all I've got."

The twist to this story is that in 1986, when McKinley was 26, he grabbed Wendy Snowden, a 23-year-old student jogging in New Plymouth, bashed her unconscious, raped and dumped her. She died 16 days later and McKinley, who had attempted to rape another woman during a previous burglary, was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1987 with six years for the rape.

So how can such a monster evoke feelings of empathy from me over his cat?

It was the day after Christmas, he's been inside for 21 years, his only friend's died and he can't find her grave, some bully is going to kill his little cat. But hang on, a girl the age of my youngest daughter has been viciously killed - am I being sucked in over this? Probably.

The one bright light is Wendy Snowden's parents, Christians, have forgiven McKinley. Her father said he understood his feelings for the cat.

Forgiveness is much mocked, but it is powerful. Increasing empirical evidence shows forgiveness is more effective at lowering depression and anxiety, and increasing general wellbeing than counselling or psychotherapy.

Relationships with animals are healing too, proven by work with autistic children and riding for the disabled.

Perhaps McKinley's feelings for Mouse indicate even monsters, deep down, have a glimmer of redemption.

I'd like to think someone is working with him, developing the care he felt for Mouse into a personality that functions normally among humans.

He's not 50 yet - it's too early to throw away the key.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY