I thought I’d check out Tennessee’s Animal Abuse Registry. In respect of animal rights they are a forward thinking state which introduced an animal abuse registry available to the public online. How about that? I think it is wonderful. It really is a milestone in respecting animal rights. It’s naming and shaming. The registry came into effect on January 1, 2016. I wrote about it on 15th Nov 2015.
Here is a screenshot of the registry as at the date of this post:
I like to see the faces of animal abusers. I throw rotten eggs at them in my mind. I despise them. I like to see if there is something in their eyes that gives me a clue as to why they are able to abuse innocent creatures. They must be the faces of people who are damaged in some way. Either that or all humans are capable of animal abuse. Perhaps the human is capable of evil and of committing any crime no matter how serious or deviant.
It is just that most of us keep that evil out of our heads and behavior through discipline, education and good parenting. I think there is still a long way to go – perhaps a few hundred years – before the human is able to genuinely treat animals with the global respect that they deserve and to stop abusing and using them on a gigantic scale.
We are in a time of mass extinction of animal species. Human population growth is rampant and with that comes more pressure and more animal abuse unless it is stamped on. One good way of squashing animal abuse is the animal abuse registry. Well done Tennessee. Several counties in New York state have similar registries.
In fact there is a growing list of NY counties who are setting up these registries. For instance the Putnam County Legislature are discussing an animal abuse registry tomorrow. Around a dozen counties in New York state have registries.
One aspect of a registry is that it can prevent people involved in breeding or rescue from adopting out animals to animal abusers because they can check online. Also it is probably a minor crime to sell or allow a registered animal abuser to adopt an animal. This can only be a good thing.
Link to Tennessee’s registry.
I notice there is an expiration date on the registry for them. That’s highly unfair to any animal or rescue that might let them have another animal without knowing their history. The current software used for sexual predators could be easily adopted to form a united warning system no matter where a dirt bag applied to or tried to buy an animal. If it’s a felony to commit animal abuse it should be tracked state to state.