Plastic bags containing the remains of about 25 cats were found hanging from a tree in Yonkers on Thursday. Credit S.P.C.A. of Westchester’s Humane Law Enforcement Division, via Associated Press

You may have seen recently in the news a story from Yonkers, New York, where 25 cats were found hanging from trees in a wooded area. Necropsies on a few of the cats that died more recently elucidated the cause of death – blunt force trauma to the head.

Clearly this is not a simple case of animal cruelty or neglect. A person who commits this sort of act is likely to be engaging in other criminal activities given that there is a strong correlation between people who abuse/kill animals and people who abuse/kill people. (See below for links…)

Though cases like this intermittently pop up in the news, animal abuse, cruelty, and neglect occur regularly throughout the country. We just don’t hear about it every day.

I am involved with investigations regularly, often with strong evidentiary support for the case to go to court. Unfortunately, however, it is very rare that cases that are investigated by my shelter make it to court. What I gather is that the District Attorney (who decides which cases to take) often decides against taking the vast majority of our cases for various reasons.

Why Prosecutors Don’t Prosecute

Perhaps the DA is concerned that a jury won’t convict the person and it will be a waste of time. There could be dozens of reasons why a DA wouldn’t take an animal-related case. However, what is truly unfortunate in my mind is that the message it sends is that animals are not a high-level priority.

We must remember that the relationship between animal abuse and domestic abuse or serial killers exists and begin to take a stand for animals so that we not only help protect the innocent creatures that cannot defend themselves, but ultimately prevent human lives from being even more brutally impacted by such depraved acts of violence.

http://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty/report-animal-cruelty/domestic-violence-and-animal-cruelty
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-link-between-animal-abuse-serial-killers-622128.html
http://spcala.com/humane_education/tlc/serial_killers.php

I recommend that you contact your local District Attorney and let them know how important it is to you that cases of animal cruelty and abuse be prosecuted. Inform them of the link between animal abuse and human abuse so that they may start to see these cases in a different light.

Please feel free to download a letter I wrote for such a purpose (please amend it as necessary) and send it to your local District Attorney. The more people who support the prosecution of animal abuse, the more animal and human lives will be saved.

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