It is clear that the appeal judges found the 17-minute-long videotape,
which was an exhibit at Power's trial, the best evidence.

I watched it yesterday, and for the record, here is in part what it
contains:

With the three young men whispering in the background, the camera
suddenly comes into focus.

The cat, a pretty creature with a white belly and a striped tail, is
alone in a white-walled barren room of a "squat" with Power and
friends. It appears nervous from the get-go.

"Killing a raccoon would be a helluva lot more exciting," whispers one
unidentified voice.

"Pillowcase," whispers another.

"No, we won't be needing that," someone says.

A white mouse, atop an empty margarine container, is put before the
cat, who barely looks at it.

"Pacifist kitty," one man says.

"Here they come on the run with their fingers up their bum ... on the
Tom and Jerry Show," sings another voice.

The mouse is held by the tail before the cat, who moves away.

"Should I mutilate it now?" someone asks.

A little later, Power asks, "How do you guys feel about being
filmed?", and one of the others asks him, "What are you going to use
it for?"

"I don't even know yet," says Power.

Wennekers then fashions a noose in the wire that has been affixed to
the ceiling.

"Let's get to work," he says.

"I want to cut open its belly while it's still alive and watch
everything move around," someone says.

"Yeah, me too," someone else replies.

Power suggests they just "slit its throat and let it bleed," but one
of his cohorts says, "We can do both. Gut it and slit its throat."

They hang the cat, which immediately begins to struggle frantically.

Power says, "Why don't we just kill it?", but takes a black glove and
a straight razor when Wennekers hands them to him.

Power saws at the cat's throat, while Wennekers stabs at it with a
buck knife, and over the next terrible minutes, with the cat howling
in agony and twitching, the trio attack it in various ways.

Once, Power is seen bending close to the animal, staring at it while
it cries; another time, he whispers, "Beautiful, man"; once, he wipes
the blade of his knife on the cat's head.

In the final scene, Power slits open the cat's chest, and appears to
inhale deeply.

Torture for torture's sake: There is no other way to describe it.
Perhaps that Senate committee, where a proposed new law that would
significantly toughen the penalties for animal cruelty is now stalled,
should have a look at the videotape.

cblatchford@nationalpost.com

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