I am sorry to hear about your loss.
We have 3 cats and 2 dogs. Our animals are indoors only, unless we take the dogs on a walk or to the dog park. We have many cats and dogs that roam the grounds around here. The house we had rented a few blocks away had 27 cats in the back yard one night. We didn't go out and shoot them, poison them, or do anything but look at them under the buildings, fence, etc.
I know not every animal that roams through yards belongs to a person and populations are very high for stray cats in most of the country. However, one cannot take it into ones own hands to deside which of these animals should be killed because it was "Not in its own yard". I know that dogs can get out of their yards, and I was not a dog person by any means until a year ago. I would make a big stink about the dogs in our yard and run out to make them go away. I would never think about killing a dog or cat that was in our yard. I have been known to spend some time with the outdoor cats in our neighborhood. We even tried to catch one, that had been shot in the face, to take him to the vet and then the humane society. He was too scared and ran away. We thought he died soon after but found him again almost a year later.
Dogs scare some people, and others think that if its in their yard, they can do what they want with it. Well, thats not true. I do not know of any cases where someone was charged for killing or torturing another person's animal. However, it only takes one person to torture or kill a person's pet to push the owner of the edge. Almost everyone I have spoken with in regards to having this sort of thing happen to their pet, would gladly return the favor to person(s) responsible.
I also know that there are people out there that simply let their animals roam free when there are laws that say "dogs must be on a leash or contained within the owner's yard". W have at least 5 dogs that are out and about daily. My wife knows each of thier names. One is so poorly taken care of his ribs show and he's always in the garbage looking for food. I have spent a few minutes with this dog in both good and bad situations. For the most part he is a good dog, but will defend the area around his owner's trash from other dogs. He did try to attack our begal mix and I stopped him in is tracks. He came after her and I simply put my foot out in front of him to stop him, either by tripping or letting him run into my foot and stop. I did not kick him, just put my foot out far enough he would hit it before contacting my dog. Since this time, we have met again without problems. He is a sweet dog. Our only concern is that he will starve to death one of these days. He is always so hungry. (Yes, he may end up at the humane society).
I guess what I am saying is that each animal has a right to be here. If someone doesn't like dogs, cats, etc., they should not take matters into their own hands. Killing dogs for fun is a sick act, the same goes for cats. I constanly here people talk about shooting cats because they are in the yard. My wife and I always worry about one of our cats getting out my accident. Although they might get hit by a car, our bigger worries are someone shooting them.
Pets are wonderful. They are part of our family and when someone does something to them to hurt or kill them. They are hurting or killing a family member.
Supressed memory...
When I was much much younger, we had a black long haired dog named Frisker. This dog was more of my sister's best friend, but I liked her as well. Anyway, my sister was petting Frisker's head one day and ran her hands down the dogs neck. She felt an odd warm sticky substance. I remember her coming in screaming her head off. As it turns out, or neighbor's kid had put a meat packing rubber band around the dogs neck. It had cut down below the skins surface. We were very lucky we caught it when we did. How do we know it was the neighbor's kid? He admitted he did it because he didn't like our dog. How did he do it, he came over our fence to put it on her.