| Animal Cruelty |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT CRUELTY TO ANIMALS | |
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Cruelty to animals refers to treatment or standards of care that cause unwarranted or unnecessary Suffering or Harm to animals. Standards of both animal cruelty legislation, and enforcement, may vary between different places from non-existent through to comprehensive, and the acts and conditions which are deemed "cruel" also vary. Opinions are divided whether practices such as Factory Farming , Fur Farming and Animal Testing of medical procedures and consumer products pose a major Moral issue. Cases in which cruelty to animals is due to a deliberate wish to be cruel (as opposed to neglect), are known as Zoosadism , and have been repeatedly linked via research with abuse and cruelty to people (including the more sensationalist examples of torture and killing). In such extreme cases cruelty to animals may also have occurred, as a "rehearsal" or as an aspect of Development . However this should be viewed in perspective; not all cruelty is Sadism , nor are all persons who are cruel to animals necessarily going to be abusive towards people. OVERVIEW Psychological studies have shown that individuals who take pleasure in inflicting harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain Psychopathologies , including Anti-social Personality Disorder , also known as psychopathic personality disorder, is a history of torturing pets and small animals, a behavior known as Zoosadism . According to the '' New York Times '', " FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of serial Rapists and Murderers , and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals a diagnostic criterion for Conduct Disorder s, though it should be noted that the inclusion of animal cruelty within this standard only began with DSM-IV. [http://www.tulsaspca.org/articles/abuse_history.html "A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a young boy." [http://www.tulsaspca.org/articles/abuse_history.html] MacDonald Triad , indicators of violent antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. According to the studies used to form this model, cruelty to animals is a common (but not with every case) behavior in children and adolescents who grow up to become Serial Killer s and other violent criminals. It has also been found that animal cruelty in children is frequently committed by children who have witnessed or been victims of abuse themselves. In two separate studies cited by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) , roughly one-third of families suffering from domestic abuse indicated that at least one child had hurt or killed a pet. There is some research, however, in both the U.K. and the U.S. that challenges the assertion that animal cruelty begets human-directed violence. Heather Piper's work, published in a 2003 article in the ''Journal of Social Work'', posits that the presumed linkage between animal cruelty and future, human directed violence might be a "sheep in wolve's clothing." Arguing that the Human Society and other animal rights organizations have popularized the seemingly "common-sense" claim that cruelty to animals is a sort of practice for later cruelty toward humans, Lea and Stock, in a Spring 2007 ''Proteus: A Journal of Ideas'' article dispute the reliability and validity of the science that initially established this claim. MacDonald's work, for instance, was based upon very few cases and included no control group; other studies, similarly, looked only at the backgrounds of serial killers to make their claims. The reference earlier in this article to the "fact" that all of the psychiatric patients who, in one study, had reported abusing dogs or cats also reported feeling a high level of aggression toward humans was found at the Tulsa SPCA page. In fact, that study and others like it are dated and do not evidence the modern scientific standars of rigor such a including a control group. Lea's book, ''Delinquency and Animal Cruelty: Myths and Realities about Social Pathology'', for instance, uses a community sample (not just a sample of criminals or serial killers but a more general sample of a population of twenty-something year old Americans) to explore how common animal cruelty is among a non-institutionalized, non-criminal population and finds that 22% of males report having engaged in such acts. Additionally, Arluke et. al., in a 1999 article in the ''Journal of Interpersonal Violence'', find that, while some people are first cruel to animals and later cruel to humans, others are first cruel to humans and later to animals and still others simply alternate haphazardly between both types of cruelty. Finally, there is also evidence that some serial killers find a strong affinity to animals and never express cruelty toward animals but have no such qualms about enacting cruelty toward humans (this paradigm was also demonstrated by Hitler and others in the Nazi leadership). The reference cited above from the Tulsa SPCA, for instance, references how Jeffrey Dahmer had "impaled dog's heads, frogs, and cats" on sticks. In fact, yes, he did do this, which is ''bizarre'', but he only did this with road kill-- post-mortem. Strange but not cruel. The Animal Welfare and Animal Rights movements represent two different responses to the issue. The animal rights movement holds that animals have rights, as humans do, including the right not to be used against their own best interests for human gain, and that humans should stop treating animals as Commodities . The animal welfare movement believes that the use of animals for human ends is justified in some instances, but within this view, seeks to end unnecessary suffering and improve animals' treatment. Either way, Humane Education is widely viewed as a potential solution to the problem of animal cruelty. By reaching children early in life, and focusing on instilling respect and compassion for animals , the goal is to stop potential abusers before they start. LAWS AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY Many jurisdictions around the world have enacted statutes which forbid cruelty to some animals; for example, see Cruelty to Animals Acts in the United States . These statutes provide minimum requirements for care and treatment of animals, but do not require optimal treatment or address issues of confinement, lack of environmental enrichments, or stress. They require that animals be provided shelter, food, water and medical treatment and that animals not be tortured, or killed in an inhumane manner. Some practices, even if controversial (such as treatment of Rodeo and Circus animals or Medical Research or animals deemed pests), are usually exempted from the enforcement of laws against cruelty. In a few jurisdictions, notably study of these special Humane Law Enforcement Officer s. |
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