Friday, June 18, 2010

News Reel - The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome

I know, two news reels in a row ... well, almost. Sorry about that but I can't help when things are published. While this is not new news and studies have been ongoing for years about this topic, I am glad that newspapers are still printing it. The more people who know about the link between Animal Cruelty and "other criminal behaviours" (usually you find articles that point this link to domestic violence). EDUCATION could save millions!



The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome is an article published on June 7, 2010 in the NY Times by CHARLES SIEBERT. In this article, Siebert summarizes the horrible act of animal cruelty "last year in southwest Baltimore, [where] a 2 year old female pit bull terrier" was doused in gasoline and set alight". Siebert also mentions that "Before 1990, only six states had felony provisions in their animal-­cruelty laws; now 46 do" which is a significant increase.



This is a good article (do I ever post any articles that aren't??) that examines studies where they found links between animal abuse and violent crimes. Many names are mentioned to have links between animal cruelty and violent crimes including Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and David Berkowitz.



As an update to this story, 17-year-old twin brothers named Tremayne and Travers Johnson were charged June 8, 2009 with animal abuse and cruelty in the May 27 burning of the dog. The brothers were indicted by a Baltimore grand jury in November on aggravated animal abuse charges. The two pleaded not guilty in December to burning the dog, named Phoenix by rescuers. Their next day in court is Wednesday, Jun 30, 2010: Trial



Here's to hoping they are tried as adults and go to jail for a very long time. I always hope for some jail-house justice ... Come on court systems ... don't fail us now!

3 comments:

GoLightly said...

I actually (couldn't) watch a video from Europe showing some piece of shit human doing that to a dog.

People like that are sick. Really, truly mentally ill.
They like it.
How to change that?
Gelding males early comes to mind.
But that's illegal.

And what to do about the bickering/infighting amongst the kind people? The polarization really annoys me.

Still fretting, still nothing being done, about my own situation.
Nothing CaN be done.
It's not illegal to neglect an animal.
Why not set it...
:(

Cyndi and Stumpy said...

People never cease to amaze me. and unfortunately, it's not in a good way most of the time. It's the connection between animal abuse and violent crime is transparent, to me. I don't know how anybody cold not see it.

bichonpawz said...

MORE people need to be prosecuted when it comes to animal cruelty.....it is so sad what people will do to a helpless animal. Just senseless. I hope they continue to send these people to jail. I hope they continue to shut down these puppy mills. It is just terrible!! Keep up your good work here on "Dogs Deserve Freedom"!!!

I'm behind you 100%...