Animal Cruelty and Human Violence Are Linked

There is no lack of news stories about people, often kids, committing heinous acts of animal cruelty. For example, recently an 18-year-old repeatedly slashed, cut off a toe and punctured the shell of a pet tortoise before dumping him in an abandoned lot. The basement of an apartment building owned by a convicted pedophile was found to contain the bones and preserved organs of animals. There is a growing epidemic of rural farm animals being shot and stabbed by kids. These include two teens who killed 24 cows, college students who slashed the neck of a horse and then stabbed it in the heart, kids who shot 15 penned goats in the face, and a 16 year old who shot repeatedly at a cow. Later that night, he killed a homeless man.

Over the past thirty years, social scientists, human service agencies, psychiatrists, and lawmakers have come to realize what the humane movement has known for a long time: that the way animals are treated is inseparable from how humans are treated in our society. In other words, animal abuse doesn't happen in a vacuum.

· Kip Kinkel (15) in May 1998 allegedly opened fire on his high school classmates in Springfield, Oregon. Two were killed and twenty-two injured. Later that day he killed his parents and his dog. He was known by friends and family to abuse, torture, and kill animals.

· Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11) in March 1998 allegedly killed four students at their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. A friend of Golden's stated: "He shoots dogs all the time with a .22."

· Luke Woodham (16) in October 1997 allegedly stabbed his mother to death, then killed two classmates and injured seven others in Pearl, MS. In his personal journal he stated that he and a friend burned and tortured his dog to death, calling it "true beauty."

How do children become animal abusers and even violent criminals? A child's natural curiosity about the world may sometimes lead him to harm small animals. But if the authority figures in his life-such as parents and teachers-make it clear to him in word and deed that it's wrong to be cruel to animals, he'll likely stop. If they don't, there can be serious repercussions. In a University of Minnesota study of delinquent versus non-delinquent children, 34% of the delinquents had lost a beloved pet through accidental or intentional killing. Often an abusive father had killed the animal in a violent way, and the child resented it. This scenario often leads to continued cruelty toward animals by the child because he wants to prove he doesn't care about what he often seems to lose anyway (e.g., his pet). Or he's convinced he's bad because his parents repeatedly send him a message that he is, and so he behaves accordingly. He feels hopeless, and he may learn to abuse animals in order to gain power, or to use them as scapegoats to demonstrate the anger he feels towards his parents or society for letting him down. Then there are the children who simply don't have it in them to value the lives of others. The DSM manual of psychiatric and emotional disorders lists animal cruelty as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders in children and adolescents.

• Jeffrey Dahmer--serial killer and sexual deviant-confessed to killing, dismembering, and sometimes cannibalizing seventeen men and boys. He impaled frogs, decapitated dogs, and staked cats to trees as a child.
• Ted Bundy--serial killer and rapist-killed as many as forty women. His father abused animals, and he himself tortured them as a child.
• Richard Allen Davis-the accused killer and rapist of twelve-year-old Polly Klaas-set cats on fire and used dogs to practice knife-throwing. He also shot to death a woman more than 20 years ago. A neighbor commented, "When he was little it was animals. When he got bigger it was people."
• Michael Wayne Echols (18), Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. (17), and Charles Jason Baldwin (16) killed three eight-year-old boys. They lured them into the woods and beat them, sexually mutilating one, raping another, and then killing all three. Prior to this, the three participated in satanic rituals involving, among other horrors, killing dogs, skinning them, and eating their flesh. When the eight-year-olds were killed, Echols was carrying a cat's head.
• Earl Kenneth Shriner-sexual predator, killer, and rapist-lured a seven-year-old boy into the woods, raped him, cut off his penis, choked him, stabbed him repeatedly, and left him to die. At sixteen he confessed to killing a teenage girl. He "put firecrackers in the anuses of dogs and strung up cats," according to police. After other incidents of animal abuse, including slaughtering twenty-four chickens, he was committed to a mental hospital.
• Thomas Lee Dillon-murderer and probable serial killer-killed a man while hunting. He was proud of the fact that he had killed over 1,000 animals in illegal drive-by shootings.
• Michael Cartier-stalker and murderer-killed his girlfriend and then himself. He had held a previous girlfriend's kitten under a hot shower, shaved all its hair off, then killed it by tossing it through a fourth floor window.
• Jason Massey as a child routinely killed dogs and cats. At twenty, he beheaded a thirteen-year-old girl and shot her fourteen-year-old stepbrother to death. Even as an adult, he killed and saved the body parts of animals in a cooler.
• Edmund Emil Kemper III killed eight women, including his mother, and abused dogs and cats.
• David Berkowitz (aka "Son of Sam") pleaded guilty to thirteen murders. He killed a neighbor's Labrador retriever, claiming the dog was the force that had made him kill.
• Albert DeSalvo (the "Boston Strangler"), who killed thirteen women, had trapped dogs and cats in orange crates as a child and shot arrows through them.

What's the link between animal abuse in childhood and violent crime in adulthood? A history of animal abuse is common among serial rapists and murderers. In addition, of those convicted murderers who had been sexually abused as children, 58% had also abused animals. A National Humane Society study found that nine out of ten people guilty of cruelty to animals are men. And women are six times more likely than men to be the victims of a violent crime committed by an intimate.

Of course, not every kid who is abused or witnesses abuse grows up to become an abuser, criminal, or mass murderer. And not every abuser or murderer is male. The important fact to keep in mind is that in study after study it was found that a history of domestic violence is an important risk factor in those who do commit violent crimes.

How does domestic violence contribute to animal abuse? Domestic violence is the most common background for animal cruelty in childhood. A study by Dr. Frank Ascione of Utah State University found that in domestic violence households, pets are fifteen times more likely to be harmed or killed than in non-violent households. While those who abuse people are likely to abuse animals, the reverse is also true. Animals are abused in 88% of the families in which children are abused. Sadly, nearly 70% of the children from domestic violence households whose mothers had sought refuge in a shelter had actually witnessed the animal abuse.

Is there a link between animal cruelty and criminal activity? A Massachusetts SPCA study determined that 70% of those who committed acts of animal cruelty had also committed at least one criminal offense. In addition, 38% had committed violent act against people. Abusers are also four times more likely to commit property crimes, and three times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses and disorderly conduct. What are the dynamics of human and companion animal battering?

Injuring a companion animal is a form of battering that may indicate that the batterer's behavior is becoming more violent, because violence against the pet is displaced violence against the human who cares about the pet. Killing an intimate's companion animal is a way of isolating the victim and intimidating her into obedience, as well as separating the abuse victim from a support network. The abuser may give the victim the animal as a gift, and then use it to control her. He will often kill or abuse animals in front of his partner to show her what will happen if she "disobeys". Even worse, sexual molestation of the animal in which the victim is forced to take part is common. The batterer may also threaten to harm the animal if the woman leaves. This psychological manipulation serves to perpetuate an atmosphere of terror and entrapment. In fact, up to 40% of battered woman delay leaving their batterer out of concern for the welfare of their companion animals.

To add to the problem, many domestic violence shelters traditionally have not accepted companion animals, for a variety of reasons; although that is now changing rapidly as society becomes more enlightened about the relationship between violence toward humans and abusive behavior toward animals.

What are the roots of violence for child as well as animal abuse? According to the Latham Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes respect for all life through education, they are: physical, emotional or sexual abuse as a child; lack of parenting or interpersonal skills; problems with coping and self-control; lack of understanding of child/pet development leading to unrealistic expectations; acceptance of violence as a solution; belief that children and pets are property; and substance abuse.

Are there laws against animal abuse? Animal cruelty is a felony in about one-third of states, but in most places it is treated as a minor crime. The National Humane Society reviewed 401 animal abuse cases (with an average of three animals abused per case) in 1997. Of those, only about 15% resulted in a court case, and about 8% of the perpetrators received jail sentences.

Which animals are most commonly abused? Although all animals are at risk-including cats and farm animals-dogs are the most frequent targets. They're shot, beaten to death, burned, poisoned, choked, and crushed by their abusers.