The FBI quietly rolled back a rule that automatically disqualified job applicants with a history of bestiality or animal cruelty. Under the new policy, those applicants can now be considered for employment as long as the conduct happened before they turned 18. When senators from both parties pressed for an explanation, the FBI could not say how many applicants this change was actually designed to help. If protecting genuine trafficking survivors is the real goal, that can be accomplished through narrow, clearly defined, and independently reviewed criteria, not by quietly erasing a basic hiring safeguard altogether.
Sign the petition urging the FBI to reverse this policy and restore automatic disqualification for applicants with a history of bestiality or animal cruelty.
FBI leadership has argued the change protects trafficking victims who were forced into abusive situations through no fault of their own, a concern worth taking seriously on its own terms. But removing automatic disqualification altogether, without transparency, data, or independent oversight to verify who actually qualifies as a victim under this policy, opens the door to considering applicants who chose to commit this kind of abuse rather than those who were coerced into it.
Lowering the bar on something as serious as animal cruelty, without clear justification or oversight, sends the wrong message about what the agency is willing to overlook.
The FBI couldn't say how many applicants this change was even meant to help, but it rolled back a basic safeguard anyway. Protecting trafficking victims and protecting animals from abuse should never be treated as if they're in conflict. Sign to demand this policy be reversed.
The public deserves an FBI held to real standards, not one quietly loosening them without explanation. Sign the petition and demand this policy be reversed.
