Animal Cruelty Violence Connection

There are many problems taking place in the world today. As people, we are faced with countless conflicts such as global warming, poverty, and war to name a few. However with our rights and voices we have to speak out for those who can't, like animals. None of these problems are as important as the atrocities animals are being faced with today. The number of cases involving violence to animals which resulted in prison sentences rose from 46 in 2001 to 57 in 2002, and keeps increasing every year. The same animals that we should be putting our all into protecting are being cruelly mistreated throughout the world, and without the luxury of voices of their own it is therefore our job to speak out for their rights and against the inhumane people that mistreat them.

With the multitude of animal cruelty crimes being committed, you truly begin to wonder the driving force behind these actions and the perpetrators that commit them. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals, "A kid who is abusive to a pet is quite often acting out violence directly experienced or witnessed at home." But in order to establish a link, you have to ask yourselves why people abuse at all, and in the end it all comes down to having a sense of control. If a person has experienced abuse at home, their parents are the ones in control. So, abusing an animal is a way for a human to get a sense of joy and power through the torture of an animal they know can't defend itself, just like they themselves couldn't do when they experienced abuse. Same reasoning applies to rapists and child abusers; they do what they do because whom ever they are hurting can't fight back.

Agent Allen Brantley, FBI Supervisory Special Agent, states "Animal cruelty...is not a harmless venting of emotion in a healthy individual; it is a warning sign..." In other words, these animal offenders have been damaged mentally to a certain extent that will eventually lead them to cause more severe and violent crimes towards humans. But what about those who don't have a childhood filled with abuse? Agent Brantley calls them "budding psychopaths." These people have no empathy at all at what they are doing and the pain they are causing to these innocent animals. Examples of people how have committed high profile crimes against humans and have had a history of animal cruelty are: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the "Boston Strangler," Albert DeSalvo, and Earl Kenneth Shriner, to name a few.

So, even with these high profile cases, animal cruelty is still taking place. Knowledge about the connection of animal cruelty and violence has to be taken seriously so that action can be taken towards these growing perpetrators. This way we will be helping to put an end to growing animal abuse and human violence.



http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/abuse_connection.php
http://www.pet-abuse.com/.../statistics/case_status.php
http://photosc.msspro.com/pic/animalrights.htm