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

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Citrus

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Apr 25, 2008
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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.
 

meatloaf231

Old Man Glenn
Feb 13, 2008
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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.

Edit: Curse you!
 

Inverse Skies

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Feb 3, 2009
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No more to blame than the people who think violent videogames promotes violence in real life. The poor dog, he did nothing wrong.
 

terminator320

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Mar 21, 2009
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think you posted the wrong link title of page you linked too was Belly buttons may cue potential mate but my opinion is that while it is sad he did it video games aren't to blame the only people that have gone over the edge due to video games were so close to going over that many other things could have pushed them over also.
 

aussiesniper

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Mar 20, 2008
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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.
 

Glerken

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Dec 18, 2008
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That's not video games to blame. However, I feel very bad for that dog. The owners are not overreacting.
 

WolfMage

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May 19, 2008
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Well damn, I was hoping for this to be an April Fool's thread, but this is just... Damn...
 

the_tramp

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May 16, 2008
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I think it's April Fools, with a fake link seeing that 99% of people won't click it. I guessed it about half way through. Good job! I laughed.
 

Usagi_dono

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Mar 26, 2009
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I have an 8 yr old Labrador Retriever, and while its touching to hear this its still just the old "its the games fault" story

Edit: Think my April fools detector went of to late... or atleast I hope its one
 

sketchesofpayne

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Sep 11, 2008
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"This prompted authorities to look into the man's medical records, and despite finding a prominent history of mental psychosis and instability... the reason is these games[!]"

That pretty much sums it up right there. Despite him being mental let's overlook that fact and blame video games.
 

WendelI

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Jan 7, 2009
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Let me see, I have overwhelming desires to hurt human beings, specially other gay men. I take medicine for it, you know, so my boyfriend doesn't end up dead next day and this becomes another case of homo-homicide. I have had depression, it was caused by hatred to well my "gayness". I still cope with it every day. guess what it my outlet? Fallout 3's Bloody mess perk, yep graphic violence is not just gratifying it is also very very useful for coping with hatred for other human beings.

what im saying here is this, games are not the cause, they are the answer for coping with these feelings.
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Sep 3, 2008
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aussiesniper said:
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.
Not really. Most here will agree that mentally stable (i.e. what passes for normal) people who play video games don't seem to suffer any adverse effects. It stands to reason a mentally unstable person who plays violent video games would have a different response. The core cause is still "the man's a nut-job" but the catalyst may well have been the 300th time he knifed a dog in WaW.
 

Haydyn

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Mar 27, 2009
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It's amazing how people are doing anyhing they can to blame violent video games. That's like saying "O, even though this mass murderer was abused as a child and had mental issues, the reason he killed everyone was because he drived a green truck, and we all know people who drive green trucks kill people!"

Which brings me to a side note: if animal violence is wrong in video games, then how come animal lovers are not complaining about the human killing in games?
 

Link Kadeshi

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Oct 17, 2008
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So... They ignore the person's insanity, and they simply can't accept that perhaps that could be responsible? Really? Are they watching The Onion News vids?! This is just plain dumb. I'm thinking this is an April Fools joke. There is little hope left if it's not, I will seriously need to start being more misanthropic.
 

Yassen

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Apr 5, 2008
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I'm questioning the validity of this, has anyone actually clicked the link? It leads to a news report about belly buttons... I think the OP is just taking the piss out of PETA and those students for being pissed off at the dog killing in call of duty.

Of course, this sounds so ridiculous it could be true, so I won't have an opinion of this unless the OP admits its an April fools joke. Besides, while it's not uncommon for people to blame video games like this, I'm not sure the police would admit this so bluntly in a news report.... unless it was Fox.
 

traceur_

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Feb 19, 2009
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"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."

training people to kill *cough*fuckwit*cough* if video games actually are the cause of these violent acts then they are just the straw that broke the camel's back, if this guy didn't have serious issues beforehand then this wouldn't have happened.
 

Doug

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Apr 23, 2008
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terminator320 said:
think you posted the wrong link title of page you linked too was Belly buttons may cue potential mate but my opinion is that while it is sad he did it video games aren't to blame the only people that have gone over the edge due to video games were so close to going over that many other things could have pushed them over also.
traceur_ said:
"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."

training people to kill *cough*fuckwit*cough* if video games actually are the cause of these violent acts then they are just the straw that broke the camel's back, if this guy didn't
have serious issues beforehand then this wouldn't have happened.
*cough-April-fools-cough*
 

caster272

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Feb 11, 2009
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This is horrible. Suing video games and lobbying against them is a stop gap measure at best. We need to sue the psychologists and doctors responsible for not curing him of his psychosis and mental instability. Until medical science can cure mental instability we must sue it into the ground.