I strongly urge you to propose legislation which would make animal abuse a felony with mandatory incarceration for perpetrators. Furthermore, this legislation should prevent prisoners from being released early due to ‘good behavior’.
Psychologists have long linked those who abuse animals with deeper and worse crimes. Kids who start abusing defenseless animals usually progress into more aggressive crimes. Social services, health professionals, and educators use such behavior to diagnose kids with antisocial personalities. The FBI criminalists look for backgrounds of animal abuse when profiling serial murderers. More than 80 percent of children rescued from abuse also detailed a history of their abusers active violence against animals.
Animals need our voice to help them. Many of these animals have life long injuries that have changed their world forever. These statistics don’t incorporate all of the cases of hoarding and abandonment, most of these numbers are of a far more violent nature. One of the most famous cases of animal abuse was the Michael Vic dog fighting ring. Social media blasted him for a short time after it was discovered that he hung dogs from trees by their throats, beat dogs within an inch of their lives, and buried hundred of dogs he killed, some still alive, in his own back yard. The punishment he received was so minimal that he is back to playing professional football, making millions of dollars, and starting a clothing line for all to enjoy.
The Human Society of the United States created the First Strike campaign aimed at stopping violent animal abusers. And the Lantham Foundation offers services to parents and educators to break the cycle of violence against animals. It is detrimental to a society that has become numb to violence all around. Turning a blind eye to animal abuse isn’t “staying out of other people’s business,” keeping silence on such abuse is risking the protection of the community from future violence. Making animal abuse a felony in all 50 states is a nationwide advancement in making the world a better place.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Gina Capitelli
