

Update: This article has been updated to reflect that the FBI is making animal cruelty easier to track; not as previously stated that the FBI made the law. Guardian Liberty Voice apologizes for the error.

The FBI is making animal cruelty easier to track as a top-tier felony, in what they say is an effort to stop the young from animal abuse acts, and from turning into something even worse. Abuse now ranks up there with assault, homicides and arson, and animal rights advocates are saying it is about time.

An animal welfare group in Los Angeles, CA, believes that children who torture animals and worse, kill animals, are likely to show violence towards others when they grow up. This animal cruelty category, which comes from the federal level, will likely help find and stop abusive behavior before it gets out of hand. The federal government has known for some time that children who have the tendency for being cruel to animals may be able to get help if they are faced with punishment, and then given help for this violent behavior before they become adults.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spoke out about this federal law via their president, Madeline Bernstein. She believes this will help the severity of sentencing, which up until now has always been categorized as “other.” She also believes this will help prevent the making of future serial killers. It will also help law enforcement and the FBI to see the extent of the problem and to quantify it through the reporting of incidents based on four categories. These categories are neglect, be it simple or gross, torture that is intentional, abuse that is organized by groups, and sexual abuse of animals.

This will give officers actual data to work with each month, states the National Sheriffs’ Associations director. Many in law enforcement would find out after the fact that a serial killer, much like Jeffery Dahlmer, killed and tortured animals as a child. Flags can now be raised, and help can be given to offenders before it is too late. These changes are expected to happen during 2015 with reports and data collected and given to the FBI as soon as 2016.

Studies by the FBI show that animal abuse is almost always a precursor to a serial killer’s rampage as an adult, and they can state facts about many of these killers that prove that theory. Animal rights advocates can only hope that it will not take too long to roll this out nationally, and to set up guidelines and update databases.

PETA has long been an advocate of tougher laws, and has reported many statistics that show the link between animal abuse and human abuse. Not all abusers turn into serial killers, but a high percentage turn into abusive adults, whether it be abuse of a spouse or child, or continued abuse of animals. A profiler for the FBI, Robert K. Ressler, has long stated that disregard for the life of an animal is the first step in becoming a person with disregard for human life. The profile of an animal abuser can take many forms as an adult, and data from police files around the world show these traits in rapists as well as murders.

By Kristi Cereska

Sources:

Detroit Free Press

Komo News

MeatPoultry.com

Peta

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