Tuesday, the Humane Society of Missouri rescued 28 dogs from a woman’s property in Lincoln County. For months-maybe even years-the dogs, ages 6 to 9, had been living in deplorable conditions. Each was kept in a cage lined with hay soaked with urine and feces. All suffer dental problems from attempting to chew out of cages they apparently never left. Some cannot walk. A few have neurological conditions and tumors. The urine and feces have caused open sores on their skin. Reading the story and seeing the TV images is enough to make any animal lover nauseous, but we do not need to be card-carrying animal activists or animal-rights zealots to be shocked and saddened by the plight of these abused animals.
Unfortunately, such abuse is not rare. Any website of an animal abuse prevention agency or humane society provides a list of abuse cases that is appalling in length and gruesome in detail. Dogs with heads and limbs twisted off, cats dumped in trash bins, family pets with smashed teeth and mutilated eyes.
It seems most reasonable people would believe that such cases warrant prosecution. Unfortunately, many state and municipal animal abuse laws are wimpy or non-existent. Even where there are laws against animal abuse, their enforcement depends on judges and prosecutors who feel that the lives of domestic animals should be of value. Sadly, this is often not true. A Kansas City lawyer defending a woman who had stabbed to death her cat and its five kittens argued, “If you can go out and shoot a dear with a bow and arrow, you ought to be able to stab a cat.”
That lawyer’s shocking and deplorable words-meant to explain away the crime of domestic animal abuse by comparing it with the legal act of hunting-raise an important question: why, in a world so fraught with human problems, should the abuse of dogs and cats matter?
One answer is moral. Humans should be humane, and humanity begs us to care not only for other humans but also for the animals we have domesticated and brought into our families. Concern about domestic animal abuse does not trivialize child abuse or violence against women. Decent, humane people should be repulsed by abuse of both animals and humans because permitting either detracts from our humanity in general.
Another reason is that animal abuse is often a precursor to violence against humans. In their national publication The Prosecutor, the nation’s prosecuting attorneys note that a child prone to abuse animals often grows into an adult prone to abuse other humans (mainly spouses and children). A study reported in the same magazine found that 36% of men convicted of sexual homicide had committed animal abuse in childhood; 46% in adolescence. Another study in The Prosecutor noted that in 88% of families where children were abused, animals were abused too. These statistics force the realization that the problem of domestic animal abuse is a matter for everyone’s concern: solving this problem is not only the right thing to do on behalf of cats and dogs, it is also the smart thing to do on behalf of human beings.
All too often, animals have no voice. As humans, we need to advocate that cases of animal abuse should be vigorously prosecuted and guilty abusers sentenced seriously. Who will speak for the animals if humans don’t? Who will solve their problems if we are unwilling to take action? Merely acknowledging the problem of animal abuse with a shake of our head or even a tear in our eye is not enough.
What can we do? Animal cruelty laws must have more “bite:” the torture, mutilation or killing of a dog or cat should be considered a felony, punishable by imprisonment and required counseling. When we elect judges and prosecutors, we should examine their animal abuse case records. When we see cases of animal abuse, we must report them (since, after all, the victims cannot report for themselves). Most of all, we need to change our throw-away mentality toward cats and dogs: while the media attention surrounding the abused dogs found Tuesday will likely ensure them homes, the fact is that 8 out of 10 shelter animals are euthanized. While putting an animal “to sleep” is sometimes necessary, the vast majority of the 35,000 dogs and cats euthanized daily in America are healthy animals on the losing end of a deadly competition for space in crowded shelters.
To do nothing about the abuse of domestic animals and unfettered overpopulation is only to perpetuate the problem. For moral and intellectual reasons, surely we can find room in our hearts and minds to speak not just for the 28 dogs found Tuesday but for all abused animals.