The FBI Is Now Keeping Track Of Animal Abusers

The FBI defines cruelty to animals as: “Intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just cause, such as torturing, tormenting, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or abandonment”.

It’s a devastating reminder of the realities of animal cruelty.

Starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will begin tracking four types of animal abuse in their national crime database, providing law enforcement with an accurate portrait of cruelty to animals in America for the very first time. And this year will be the first time it collects data on animal crimes the way it does for other serious crimes like homicide. “Animal cruelty can also be a predictor crime that those who are repeatedly involved in harming animals are at high risk of being involved in crimes against people”.

The FBI already has national databases for crimes like murder and rape. He also expressed that this change is a “significant step forward” to bringing justice to those who rely on humans for care and safety.

In years past, crimes against animals were lumped into an “other” category.

The FBI will use the information uploaded onto its National Incident-Based Reporting System to provide nationwide statistics on crimes committed to animals.

However, Arkow continued, if animal abuse had been listed as a separate item on Uniform Crime Reports, which are used by thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide, police officers would be more incentivized to look into these cases.

What Will It Mean for Horses? It is believed that recording these statistics will show important trends in coming years, making it easier to track and quantify animal abuse crimes. They hope the database could eventually lead to stiffer laws.

Animal law program director at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark College, Natasha Dolezal, told the Associated Press that the correlation between a propensity to abuse animals and commit violent crimes has proven strong enough to propel people to take the issue seriously, since animal rights alone is not an issue people unanimously prioritize.

Long-term, it is hoped that the new designation will encourage police departments to reform their animal-abuse and neglect policies to reflect the new designation, hopefully drastically reducing animal abuse as a whole.

Up until now, animal cruelty usually came under an “others” category, thrown in with smaller, less serious crimes.

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This is a beginning.