Utah man kills dog... videogames to blame? (article)

[Inverse Skies]

Agreed.
Perhaps society needs reform when one of the only ways for me to relax is to kill things virtually.

Lol, you can blame ANYTHING on society!

 

[Artemis923]

You know the "gamez r bad" thing has gone a little too far when the WW2 games start getting hit.

Next to grace the list of protested games: POKEMON, because it teaches kids to cram their pets in little balls and use them to conquer the world!

 

[Inverse Skies]

I blame society for allowing me to blame society for everything.
Those bastards.

The logic behind that sentence... the implications are astounding! Lol

 

[TheEvilDuck]

It was the early hours of the morning in the rural town of Kamas, Utah, when police were called to the house of Robert and Ingrid Anderson. The couple had just returned home after spending a couple of nights in the neighboring town of Henefer, but their welcome home was far from pleasant: lying on their doorstep was the corpse of Rufus, their eight-year-old Labrador Retriever.

"We went to attend a friend's wedding out of town, so we left Rufus here in the care of a neighbour. We were in Henefer for two days... [and] when we got home this morning, we found Rufus sprawled in front of the door," says 32-year-old Ingrid Anderson, teary-eyed.

The couple confronted the neighbour they had entrusted with Rufus, 27-year-old John Gregorie, and were told that their dog had, "just died of old age." However, closer inspection of the Labrador revealed several deep lacerations, including one on the dog's throat that was later deemed responsible for its death. Despite Gregorie claiming that he was, "just as surprised as [them]," to see the injuries, the Andersons called the police, at which point Gregorie admitted to killing the dog.

Says officer Don Grant, "It's really horrible, hearing about something like this. This family put their trust into a neighbor, and for him to do something like this, it's just unreal."

When asked why he killed the Andersons' dog, Gregorie claimed that he was overwhelmed by, "a desire to hurt things," and that he, "was not himself when he killed Rufus". This prompted authorities to look into the man's medical records, and despite finding a prominent history of mental psychosis and instability, officials searched even further into Gregorie's life to find what could have motivated him to commit such a horrible act of violence and betrayal.

"The one thing that stood out about his life was the investment he put into playing videogames," explains Officer Grant. "From what we've gathered, he spends about twenty hours a week in front of his TV, playing games... and most of them feature violence."

One game in his collection that caught the authorities' attention was "Call of Duty: World at War", a game wherein players are rewarded points for killing dogs. The game even gives players the freedom to kill these virtual animals in a variety of different ways, including by gun, by flamethrower, and by knife.

"It's disgusting," remarks Ingrid. "It's absolutely ridiculous. We wonder why these things happen, we wonder how people can be driven to be so cruel, and the reason is right there: these games - these violent games - they're training people to kill."

This isn't the first time that videogames have driven a person to violence: almost every public shooting in the past five years has been attributed to the playing of violent games. This is just one of several instances in which a man, so engrossed by the alternate world of gaming, has lost his grip on reality. Despite this, all efforts to outlaw violent games have been dismissed by congress.

As they bury the corpse of their beloved dog, Ingrid and Robert Anderson have decided to lobby against the gaming industry, and encourage others to do the same.

John Gregorie is due for trial in May.

(Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28934310/)

What do you guys think of this? I think the owners of the dog are overreacting a bit, but I actually do see where they're coming from.

I don't think they're overreacting in the least. The man killed their dog horribly. You might not have a pet, but they're as important as any other member of the family. I'd definitely want the man who killed my dog brought to justice.

Anyway, I don't necessarily think video games are to blame (although this one is a better argument than most.) A normal person, especially an adult, shouldn't be so eager to commit violence or so easy to convince. Killing a dog in a game is completely different from actually killing one.

 

[TheEvilDuck]

Now that the day has come to an end, I guess it's worth noting that this was indeed fake.

April Fools!

Are you kidding?

I hate you.

A lot.

I was totally believed it and got really upset. >________<

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

Incidentaly, seeing that it's not the 1st of April anymore you might want to put up a disclaimer stating that this is an APRIL FOOLS!

 

[purplegothchick]

I started to think this was an April Fool about halfway through because it did not sound like a very well written piece of journalism, it was too emotive. Then i looked at the link and it confirmed these suspicions. Hm. I think I liked Alpine legend better!

 

[Uncompetative]

Dogs kill more babies than videogamers.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

Anyone who is overwhelmed by a desire to hurt things already has some serious issues. Heck, they even confirmed his history of instability. Video games were probably just an outlet

I fully agree. Blaming Video Games is a shortsighted. I mean he had a history of mental instability...Video Games haven't been messing with his mind since the day he was born.

 

[TheLivingDaylights]

Bullshit. He is a psycho. Video games causing this is like saying the amount of time he invested in eating caused this. Games have not become that real yet. You are taught to push buttons to initiate a command, not to actually stab a dog. Once again, blame the games game wins over common sense at recognizing a psycho. Are the other 50 Million playing this game also animal tormenters/ I don't think so. Everyone who draws skulls is not going to shoot up a school. Just another liberal smear on violence, taken from a tragic story.

 

[UpcountryGecko]

Violent video games are going to cause the end of the world as quite clearly from this evidence their wasn't violence in the world before video games were made and the whole mental health problems weren't a factor in the neighbour killing the dog.

*said in a sacastic way*

 

[Baby Tea]

So the man had a history of mental instability, yet they blame this on videogames?

That's not even silly anymore. It's just depressing.

No joke.
Who cares that the guy had an admitted and documented history of mental instability?
He played games. They're evil.

Ugh.

 

[Anarchemitis]

In other news, Genocide continues in Chad.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Ugh why would you do that? That's awful. I really hope you're lying. Seeing as the link was not true...

 

[Lima]

That is just MESSED UP.

 

[P1p3s]

sorry - shall we look at the statistical likelyhood of playing COD resulting in real world violence...I've played it, to my knowledge I have never hurt another living thing (with intent of course - I have occasionally sat on my husband awkwardly)
so thats a 1 in 2 chance, how many copies did it sell? I'm going for a super conservative estimate of 10thousand copies (i know its more - just go along with me here)
So 1 in 10,000 chance of commiting violence?

What about the REAL wars that people fight in every day, not every soldier that comes home from war starts butchering kittens!

The guy was unstable, he had a history of mental illness, War & Peace could have triggered his behaviour coz he was ALREADY CRACKED

rant over

 

[luckshot]

yeah i'm gonna go ahead and say this guy already had issues. video games drive people to violence the same way a car drives people to eat fast food they take you where you want to go

 

[ArcadianTrance]

The sadest thing about this is how believable it is. Really it could just happen any day guy with issues kills dog but he plays video games so it's their fault.
Honestly the belly button thing is the less believable of the two.