There is a need for a simple register of animal abusers. It should be accessible by the public or at least people with an interest in ensuring cat welfare when adopting out cats. I am thinking of cat rescue organisations. In the USA, the registers would be a on state-by-state basis or county-by-county basis. This has happened in New York state in Rockland, Albany and Suffolk counties.
Albany County was the third to pass an animal abuser registry law. This occurred on Oct 12th 2011. In NY, millions of animals are protected by animal abuser registries.
These are the first three of their kind in the USA. They are publicly accessible. They allow concerned people to track the whereabouts of convicted animal abusers. These offenders are unable to acquire an animal.
The Albany County law applies to convictions of misdemeanors and felonies relating to animal cruelty, animal fighting, sexual abuse of an animal and harming service/police dogs.
Offenders are obliged to register. Failure to do so is in itself a crime punishable by a max. 12 months prison sentence and up to $1,000 fine.
Use of the register is mandatory for people and organisations involved in selling or offering for adoption, animals. Failure to use the register is punishable by a $5,000 fine.
The objective is to prevent repeat offences and to try and put a brake on offenders going on to commit offences against people.
I presume the registered individuals can apply for their name to be removed after a certain period of time. Perhaps not. There will be an argument about a listing being indefinite.
Playing devil’s advocate, I can see a resistance to this from people who are against animal rights or against extending animal rights which impinge upon human rights. These are the human-centric people who see animals as creatures to use for the benefit of humans.
A section of society might claim that this sort of register is an abuse of human rights. I disagree vehemently of course. What about the rights of the victims and their caretaker/guardians? Worldwide there is still a great need to improve animal welfare and to extend animal rights.
We agree that a convicted criminal should lose some human rights if necessary and the victim’s rights should be prioritized. If a criminal is genuinely rehabilitated then his rights can be restored after his sentence is served and/or fine paid. Human rights should be granted universally but earned back once lost. I don’t see an obstacle to losing some rights such as the right to privacy if a person has committed a crime.
There is a petition on this website.
Jason, My point wasn’t that minks lives are more important than other animals. It was that children are encouraged to kill, inhumanely. And this may lead to them becoming abusers as adults.
Children of farmers and ranchers are raised where this is part of their everyday life. This is what they know. As adults, they may discover that they don’t want to continue to eat meat, and may become vegan. There seems to be more recognition of farm animal cruelty.
I don’t think that most people even know that there are ground up dogs, cats, and other unidentified, diseased tissue in pet food. I only recently discovered this myself.
I don’t understand when you say that cats were created by humans. How did they do this? What human created the cat?
I recall in freshman high-school biology class where a mink-farmer brought in some of their “livestock” and showed us how they humanely killed them by quickly bending the head backward, top of skull to backbone, then pushing forward with a quick snap. Instant, quick, and painless. We also withdrew blood from several live mink and filled capillary tubes for the centrifuge where we then separated-out the different blood components for testing for blood-types, diseases, and other things.
You sound like one of those animal-rights loonies, that no matter how an animal is killed it must be inhumane. May you lose access to your comfortable little stores and have to harvest your own meals from the lands one day. You’d starve yourselves to death by believing you were being inhumane just to live.
Humans created today’s house-cat-species (Felis catus) through selective-breeding. A rudimentary form of genetic-engineering. No different than if a completely new insect was created in some lab with more advanced recombinant DNA techniques. The species of animal that you call the common “cat” today, would have never existed if it weren’t for human manipulating animal’s genetics for human’s purposes.
Please, people, educate yourselves. At LEAST this much. Even a freshman’s high-school level of education in biology and ecology can afford you with the things you need to know. Can’t you get at least that much of an education?
OH, and if you can’t kill animals, then kiss your cats goodbye too, because they require animal protein to live. They are an obligate carnivore. They cannot survive without consuming animal flesh.
An animal abuser usually shows this tendency early on in childhood. Sometimes they are taught by parents to hurt and kill animals. (not discussing hunting families here)
I recently posted on Facebook about a mink operation in Denmark where parents bring little children so they could witness the killing and skinning of these animals. When children see this act approved by their parents, they will grow up thinking it’s right. They get desensitized, as we all can, when we accept abuse of animals and people as a way of modern life.
Someone must stand up for those who cannot, or will not speak (children) because of fear.
I want to know where convicted abusers live. We know that most animal abusers progress to human abuse, torture, and killing.
This registry could save the life of a loved one, animal or human.
Why is a mink’s life more important than that cow you pay to have killed for your McBurger? They are both being killed for human purposes. Or what about all those animals that you pay to have killed and have ground-up and put into your cans, boxes, and bags of cat-food? Those too are being killed for human purposes. The house-cat species is only here for human purposes. They were created by humans, for humans, they serve no other purpose on earth.
Are all those animals killed for your needs less important than those mink? I guess so. It’s all what you grow-up to “value”, isn’t it. A mirror is your friend (or foe, in this case).
You are missing the point again completely. All animals can be abused and if they are abused they treated equally under animal abuse laws. Well, they are in the UK.
You are referring to livestock slaughtered for human food. These animals are killed under strict conditions: stunned then killed to avoid animal cruelty. If they are not, the business should be prosecuted. That is what happens.
Cats have a purpose on this planet but humans do not, we have invaded it and taken it from animals who lived by Nature before we came along and now we are destroying it.
Animals are not ours to use, abuse or eat.
I completely agree with your sensible comment.
This is a good idea, but should be accessible to everyone who has a pet up for adoption.
Yes agreed. Thanks for the support Sadie Ann.
Yes a register is badly needed world wide
That list would be quickly overwhelmed with the names and addresses of every person who lets their cat roam free to be ran-over by cars, lap-up antifreeze in any gutter, attacked by other animals, or dies any other of the myriad and heinous ways that every last free-roaming cat eventually suffers to death. Being found clearly guilty of all animal-neglect, animal-endangerment, and animal-abandonment laws worldwide. Are you certain you want to start that list? 🙂
Jason, you are completely wrong and I suspect you know it. The only people on the register would be convicted criminals: animal abusers, which by the way would be massively unrepresented because there is far more abuse than is prosecuted. What I mean is that the police don’t prioritize highly enough animal abuse and therefore fail to prosecute frequently enough.
Just sayin’, it’s going to eventually come back and bite you all on your a**es. There’s a very good reason those laws were written and exist in nearly every country on earth. Until you can comprehend that you’ll never understand why I wrote what I did.
I appreciate how polite you are today Jim.
Michael, I so agree!!! The anipals deserve to live and be taken care of properly as well as any human. . . I pray that an animal abuse registry becomes worldwide!!! — just as in sex/child offenders! It is the same — rights for the voiceless!!! Ans, I will ALWAYS stand up for the voiceless — especially the children and anipals!! ♥♥♥
Me too. I will always fight the animals which means fighting against people sadly.