A victory for animal lovers everywhere – FBI has finally reclassified animal abuse crimes.
The new laws, taking effect in 2016, will upgrade animal cruelty to a felony along with arson, burglary, kidnapping and homicide.
“Animal cruelty is a huge problem,” Cindy Sanders, co-founder of Community Action for Animals, tells KCTV5 in the following video. “Honestly, it’s big everywhere but the Mid-South and the Deep South show some of the highest concentrations.
The Community Action for Animals, co ran by Sanders and Jackie John, is an amazing coalition determined to stop mistreatment of animals in their neighborhood near Memphis, Tennessee.
Sanders told the news that animal abusers don’t stop there – it often leads to spouse or child abuse, and other violent crimes.
The spcaLA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles) has played a huge part in making this happen.
In her blog, Madeline Bernstein, Presidnt spcaLA, touches on the same evidence that Cindy Sanders,co-founder of Community Action of Animals, mentions in the video: “it is no coincidence that those who abuse animals will often commit violent acts against people.”
To that affect, spcaLA partnered with the National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse of the National Sheriff’s Association. John Thompson, the Interim Executive Director for the National Sheriff’s Association, was a driving force behind this campaign – working tirelessly to convince the FBI to add animal abuse crimes to the National Incident Based Reporting System, says Bernstein.
“I personally, having been in law enforcement my entire professional career, am thrilled to finally see this come to pass and I thank John Thompson for his leadership and perseverance in this effort,” adds Bernstein.
It means the Bureau will not be able to track trends, patterns and tendencies in the people who are committing these horrific crimes, allowing orgnaizations, like the spcaLA, a chance to develop ways to prevent and reverse the criminal behavior.
And, as mentioned before, it may prevent these same criminals from moving onto to domestic crimes involving humans, which often happens.
“THERE IS A HIGH CORRELATION BETWEEN DOMESTIC ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE, AND ANIMAL ABUSE. UNTIL SOMEONE STEPS IN TO STOP IT, THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE.” (spcaLA)
The Humane Society of the United States has some pretty startling statistics:
- A 2001-2004 study by the Chicago Police Department “revealed a startling propensity for offenders charged with crimes against animals to commit other violent offenses toward human victims.” Of those arrested for animal crimes, 65% had been arrested for battery against another person.
- Of 36 convicted multiple murderers questioned in one study, 46% admitted committing acts of animal torture as adolescents.
- Of seven school shootings that took place across the country between 1997 and 2001, all involved boys who had previously committed acts of animal cruelty. (www.humanesociety.org)
A Positive Step
For all of these reasons (and more) the spcaLA has a program called Teaching Love and Compassion (TLC) – a four-week long violence prevention program designed to teach empathy and compassion to youth in at-risk communities. They also offer a two-day program in conjunction with the Los Angeles County District Attorney that is a condition of probation for some juvenile offenders.
(H/T: Kctv5.com)
