By BENITA Y. WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star
Two dogs in northeast Kansas City found with a hind leg severed.
A man in Lawrence accused of putting his pet rabbit in a plastic bag and trying to break its neck.
A cat with a slit throat in Overland Park and a dead dog stuffed in the basement ceiling of a Shawnee home.
A rash of animal-cruelty cases has horrified area residents this summer, but officials say it’s premature to say such abuse is on the rise. More likely, they say, the attention is due to a growing awareness that animal abuse matters.
“People are starting to say this is a crime and it needs to be reported,” said Alison Gianotto, director and founder of Pet-Abuse.com, a national animal protection advocacy group. “Before, they would say it’s not my business.”
Lesly Forsberg, manager of the Kansas City Animal Health and Public Safety Department, said the violence inflicted on animals was a reflection, and sometimes an indicator, of violence in other parts of society.
“Most people who go on to commit crimes on people start by committing crimes against animals,” she said.
Then there is dogfighting, which is often motivated by profit or ego.
A couple in Atchison, Kan., has been charged with that crime, and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick recently pleaded guilty in a dogfighting case.
On Thursday, the Johnson County district attorney discussed the details of a case accusing an Olathe man of breeding dogs for fighting.
Authorities said they found many of the same dogfighting implements federal authorities found in the Vick case: canine treadmills, jaw-strengthening rope devices, and “rape stands” used to restrain aggressive female dogs for mating.
“It’s not exactly the same thing (as animal cruelty) but it certainly falls under the category of the terrible things we do to our pets,” said Dale Bartlett deputy manager of animal-cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.
• • •
Most cases uncovered by animal protection workers involve neglect or someone hording dogs or cats they cannot care for.
Sometimes, Forsberg said, a person obtains a pet without knowing how much care it needs and then abuses the animal out of frustration.
However, power motivates those rare offenders who intentionally harm a living creature for pleasure or sport.
According to literature from the Humane Society and others, animal torturers often feel powerless, and they cope by dominating a defenseless animal. Some do it to intimidate or seek revenge on someone.
Others are rejecting societal rules. Children who abuse animals often do poorly in school and have low self-esteem and few friends.
“The mind-set of those who torture, mutilate or intentionally harm an animal and derives pleasure doing so is a frightening mind-set,” said Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline.
However, Kline said, when it comes to dogfighting, there is another motivation: money.
“Breeding animals to fight doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” he said. “There must be those who purchase the animals … and those who wager.”
About 40,000 people are involved in organized, money-making, dogfighting, estimates John Goodwin, manager of animal-fighting issues for the Humane Society. An additional 100,000 participate at an amateur level, where owners fight their dogs for “street cred” or bragging rights.
Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states and is a felony in all but two. Federal laws make it illegal to transport animals across state lines for fighting or to profit from animal-fighting videos.
Two dogs in northeast Kansas City found with a hind leg severed.
A man in Lawrence accused of putting his pet rabbit in a plastic bag and trying to break its neck.
A cat with a slit throat in Overland Park and a dead dog stuffed in the basement ceiling of a Shawnee home.
A rash of animal-cruelty cases has horrified area residents this summer, but officials say it’s premature to say such abuse is on the rise. More likely, they say, the attention is due to a growing awareness that animal abuse matters.
“People are starting to say this is a crime and it needs to be reported,” said Alison Gianotto, director and founder of Pet-Abuse.com, a national animal protection advocacy group. “Before, they would say it’s not my business.”
Lesly Forsberg, manager of the Kansas City Animal Health and Public Safety Department, said the violence inflicted on animals was a reflection, and sometimes an indicator, of violence in other parts of society.
“Most people who go on to commit crimes on people start by committing crimes against animals,” she said.
Then there is dogfighting, which is often motivated by profit or ego.
A couple in Atchison, Kan., has been charged with that crime, and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick recently pleaded guilty in a dogfighting case.
On Thursday, the Johnson County district attorney discussed the details of a case accusing an Olathe man of breeding dogs for fighting.
Authorities said they found many of the same dogfighting implements federal authorities found in the Vick case: canine treadmills, jaw-strengthening rope devices, and “rape stands” used to restrain aggressive female dogs for mating.
“It’s not exactly the same thing (as animal cruelty) but it certainly falls under the category of the terrible things we do to our pets,” said Dale Bartlett deputy manager of animal-cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.
• • •
Most cases uncovered by animal protection workers involve neglect or someone hording dogs or cats they cannot care for.
Sometimes, Forsberg said, a person obtains a pet without knowing how much care it needs and then abuses the animal out of frustration.
However, power motivates those rare offenders who intentionally harm a living creature for pleasure or sport.
According to literature from the Humane Society and others, animal torturers often feel powerless, and they cope by dominating a defenseless animal. Some do it to intimidate or seek revenge on someone.
Others are rejecting societal rules. Children who abuse animals often do poorly in school and have low self-esteem and few friends.
“The mind-set of those who torture, mutilate or intentionally harm an animal and derives pleasure doing so is a frightening mind-set,” said Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline.
However, Kline said, when it comes to dogfighting, there is another motivation: money.
“Breeding animals to fight doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” he said. “There must be those who purchase the animals … and those who wager.”
About 40,000 people are involved in organized, money-making, dogfighting, estimates John Goodwin, manager of animal-fighting issues for the Humane Society. An additional 100,000 participate at an amateur level, where owners fight their dogs for “street cred” or bragging rights.
Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states and is a felony in all but two. Federal laws make it illegal to transport animals across state lines for fighting or to profit from animal-fighting videos.
But despite the prohibitions, the popularity of animal fighting appears to be growing.
Goodwin said that about a dozen underground magazines were dedicated to dogfighting, and there are DVDs showing hours of canine carnage set to gangster rap music.
“There’s always something new,” Goodwin said. “But I think momentum is on our side. … I think it can be eradicated, but we have to keep plowing ahead.”
• • •
No federal law requires animal cruelty to be tracked.
Those crimes are not reported nationally to the FBI, like violent crimes against humans, and few states mandate that veterinarians report suspected abuse cases.
Pet-Abuse, however, tracks cases through the media or submissions by the public. It has an online database of more than 11,000 cases from six countries dating from 2000.
“We’re probably the best out there, but we know we’re not getting everything,” Gianotto said.
Pet-Abuse has logged 1,183 animal abuse cases in the United States so far this year, compared with 2,284 in all of 2006 and 1,962 in 2005.
Bartlett said that research over the past three decades had made the public recognize the link between animal cruelty and other violent crime.
For example, the American Humane Association reports that 71 percent of pet-owning women entering shelters said their abuser had harmed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or control. A study by the Chicago Police Department found that 86 percent of the people they arrested for animal cruelty and dogfighting had previous arrests; 65 percent had arrests for battery.
Meanwhile, stricter laws against animal brutality have been slow to evolve. Before 1986, four states had laws making animal cruelty a felony, compared with 43 states today.
Animal cruelty is a felony in both Missouri and Kansas. But neither is among a growing number of states that provide restraining orders in animal abuse cases or that ban abusers from again owning animals and mandate that they receive counseling.
Kansas Sen. David Haley said that it often took horrific animal abuse or the crimes it could lead to for lawmakers to act.
For eight years, Haley tried to pass “Scruffy’s law,” a bill to elevate Kansas’ animal cruelty law to a felony. The measure was named for a Yorkshire terrier that was burned to death on camera in 1997.
Still, the law wasn’t approved until 2006, after it became known that Wichita BTK killer Dennis Rader bound dogs and cats with wire and suffocated them in a barn long before he began slaying people.
“I think that really was where it became crystal clear how animal cruelty is a gateway to greater violence,” Haley said.
Goodwin said that about a dozen underground magazines were dedicated to dogfighting, and there are DVDs showing hours of canine carnage set to gangster rap music.
“There’s always something new,” Goodwin said. “But I think momentum is on our side. … I think it can be eradicated, but we have to keep plowing ahead.”
• • •
No federal law requires animal cruelty to be tracked.
Those crimes are not reported nationally to the FBI, like violent crimes against humans, and few states mandate that veterinarians report suspected abuse cases.
Pet-Abuse, however, tracks cases through the media or submissions by the public. It has an online database of more than 11,000 cases from six countries dating from 2000.
“We’re probably the best out there, but we know we’re not getting everything,” Gianotto said.
Pet-Abuse has logged 1,183 animal abuse cases in the United States so far this year, compared with 2,284 in all of 2006 and 1,962 in 2005.
Bartlett said that research over the past three decades had made the public recognize the link between animal cruelty and other violent crime.
For example, the American Humane Association reports that 71 percent of pet-owning women entering shelters said their abuser had harmed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or control. A study by the Chicago Police Department found that 86 percent of the people they arrested for animal cruelty and dogfighting had previous arrests; 65 percent had arrests for battery.
Meanwhile, stricter laws against animal brutality have been slow to evolve. Before 1986, four states had laws making animal cruelty a felony, compared with 43 states today.
Animal cruelty is a felony in both Missouri and Kansas. But neither is among a growing number of states that provide restraining orders in animal abuse cases or that ban abusers from again owning animals and mandate that they receive counseling.
Kansas Sen. David Haley said that it often took horrific animal abuse or the crimes it could lead to for lawmakers to act.
For eight years, Haley tried to pass “Scruffy’s law,” a bill to elevate Kansas’ animal cruelty law to a felony. The measure was named for a Yorkshire terrier that was burned to death on camera in 1997.
Still, the law wasn’t approved until 2006, after it became known that Wichita BTK killer Dennis Rader bound dogs and cats with wire and suffocated them in a barn long before he began slaying people.
“I think that really was where it became crystal clear how animal cruelty is a gateway to greater violence,” Haley said.
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