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 Animal
Abuse & Neglect
by Pet-Abuse.com
There are many different reasons why individuals
abuse animals. Animal cruelty covers a wide range of actions
(or lack of action), so one blanket answer simply isn't possible.
Each type of abuse has displayed certain patterns of behavior
that we can use to help understand more about why people commit
the crimes we encounter today.
Animal cruelty is often broken down into two
main categories: active and passive, also referred to as comission
and omission, respectively.
In many cases of neglect where an investigator
feels that the cruelty occurred as a result of ignorance,
they may attempt to educate the pet owner and then revisit
the situation to check for improvements. In more severe cases
however, exigent circumstances may require that the animal
is removed from the site immediately and taken in for urgent
medical care.
Active Cruelty (Acts of Commission)
Active cruelty implies malicious intent, where
a person has deliberately and intentionally caused harm to
an animal, and is sometimes referred to as NAI (Non-Accidental
Injury). Acts of intentional cruelty are often some of the
most disturbing and should be considered signs of serious
psychological problems. This type of behavior is often associated
with sociopathic behavior and should be taken very seriously.
 Animal abuse in violent homes can take many
forms and can occur for many reasons. Many times a parent
or domestic partner who is abusive may kill, or threaten to
kill, the household pets to intimidate family members into
sexual abuse, to remain silent about previous or current abuse,
or simply to psychologically torture the the victims, flexing
their "power."
Passive
Cruelty (Acts of Omission)
Passive cruelty is typified by cases of neglect,
where the crime is a lack of action rather than the action
itself — however do not let the terminology fool you.
Severe animal neglect can cause incredible pain and suffering
to an animal.
Examples of neglect are starvation, dehydration,
parasite infestations, allowing a collar to grow into an animal's
skin, inadequate shelter in extreme weather conditions, and
failure to seek veterinary care when an animal needs medical
attention.
Animal Abuse & Pathology
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Earl Kenneth Shriner,
who raped, stabbed, and mutilated a 7-year-old boy,
had been widely known in his neighborhood as the man
who put firecrackers in dogs' rectums and strung up
cats. |
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Brenda Spencer, who opened fire at
a San Diego school, killing two children and injuring
nine others, had repeatedly abused cats and dogs, often
by setting their tails on fire. |
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Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler"
who killed 13 women, trapped dogs and cats in orange
crates and shot arrows through the boxes in his youth. |
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Carroll Edward Cole, executed for
five of the 35 murders of which he was accused, said
his first act of violence as a child was to strangle
a puppy. |
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In 1987, three Missouri high school
students were charged with the beating death of a classmate.
They had histories of repeated acts of animal mutilation
starting several years earlier. One confessed that he
had killed so many cats he'd lost count. Two brothers
who murdered their parents had previously told classmates
that they had decapitated a cat. |
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Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had impaled
dogs' heads, frogs, and cats on sticks. |
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More recently, high school killers
such as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Ore.,
and Luke Woodham, 16, in Pearl, Miss., tortured animals
before embarking on shooting sprees. |
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Columbine High School students Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot and killed 12 classmates
before turning their guns on themselves, bragged about
mutilating animals to their friends. |
This article is reprinted with the permission
of Pet-Abuse.com.
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