Recently, animal cruelty has been all over the news:

Emmanuel Alfredo Tadeo, a 28 year old Georgia resident pleaded guilty to four charges, Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Animal Cruelty, Animal Cruelty and Battery, after he was arrested for beating his girlfriend with her dead Pomeranian, Murphy who he killed minutes beforehand.

After receiving an upsetting phone call in his girlfriend’s apartment- Tadeo, who has a history of domestic abuse, kicked and hit his girlfriend, and proceeded to stomp, kick and throw her dog across the room. After his girlfriend begged him to let her take the dog to the vet; Tadeo took the dog outside and killed it by breaking it’s neck, came back inside and beat the woman with the deceased dog

After his phycological evaluation Tadeo will be sentenced; The maximum penalty for animal cruelty is five years in prison and 20 years for aggravated assault.

In Boynton Beach, Florida last week a couple had a warrant issued for their arrest after investigators responded on Valentine’s Day to an abandoned apartment where they found four dogs who were starved, dehydrated and living in deplorable conditions. When Palm Beach county animal control entered the apartment they found four pit bulls; two came up to the door, emaciated and covered in urine and feces. The apartment had no furniture or belongings but was littered with garbage. No food or water was present for the dogs and feces and urine covered the floors throughout and blood covered a large area of the floor in one corner and was smeared up the walls. Two dogs were confined to crates, and one dog was badly injured with infected puncture wounds on a leg and her head.

The maximum penalty the couple will face is 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

The laws for animal cruelty vary from state to state, but over all have little consequence.

Recently, the state of Illinois came forward with one of the harshest punishments for a man who pleaded guilty to the felony charge of animal torture and cruelty charges for pinning his small brown dog to the ground in front of his home in early June and punching the dog four or five times. The man in question is James Robert Wesolaski of Des Plaines, Illinois and he has been sentenced to 30 months prison and ordered not to own a pet or live in a residence with any animal for 20 years.

When animal cruelty laws have harsh consequences not only are they protecting animals, they are also protecting people:
71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims; 32% reported their children had hurt or killed animals.

68% of battered women reported violence towards their animals. 87% of these incidents occurred in the presence of the women, and 75% in the presence of the children, to psychologically control and coerce them.

13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.

Between 25% and 40% of battered women are unable to escape abusive situations because they worry about what will happen to their pets or livestock should they leave.

Abusers kill, harm, or threaten children’s pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.

Disturbed children kill or harm animals to emulate their parents’ conduct, to prevent the abuser from killing the pet, or to take out their aggressions on another victim.

In one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes. Domestic violence victims whose animals were abused saw the animal cruelty as one more violent episode in a long history of indiscriminate violence aimed at them and their vulnerability. For references, please see http://www.animaltherapy.net/Bibliography-Link.html

As members of the animal community we understand the need to protect our companions, and we need to stand behind lawmakers and public servants who help make that possible- and show those who choose to ignore the rights of animals that we will not stand for it. Check out your representative’s voting record at a website like VoteSmart.org and help make animal rights a reality.

Story by Lauren McGregor Downs